21 days after surgery: World Championship dominator Quiles triumphed ahead of Intact ace Almansa

As a prelude to the Moto3 race at MotorLand Aragón, fans of the Motorcycle World Championship were treated to an extraordinary qualifying session, with David Almansa taking centre stage. The Intact GP rider had started the session as the favourite, but then had to contend with the competition and yellow flags before clinching pole position and setting a new lap record on the final lap.

There was also excitement within the team led by Jorge ‘Aspar’ Martinez, which has dominated this season. Both riders made it onto the front row – a huge success for rookie Marco Morelli in second place and even more so for the injured Maximo Quiles. The World Championship leader had recently faltered in England, breaking his collarbone during qualifying.

Behind Matteo Bertelle and Adrian Cruces, the highly rated Red Bull KTM youngsters Brian Uriarte and Alvaro Carpe started the 13th round of the season from 6th and 7th on the grid. Also worth noting: the two Tech3 riders, Perrone and Salmela, in 9th and 12th. Leo Rammerstorfer, who is competing in his rookie season for Paolo Simoncelli’s Honda team, did not make it past Q1 in Aragon – 24th on the grid for the Austrian.

The race distance for the smallest engine capacity class, in still bearable temperatures of 27 degrees: 17 laps, or just over 85 kilometres. The big question: will Quiles hold back, or will Marc Marquez’s protégé try to stop David Almansa? All 26 riders returned from the warm-up lap – race on!

David Almansa got off to a perfect start and led the field through the first lap. Whilst Nicola Carraro went off at Turn 5, the Ajo riders had overtaken Cruces and Bertelle. Almansa ahead of Quiles, Morelli, Uriarte and Carpe – that was the top five after the first lap. The loser at the start was Matteo Bertelle, who dropped from P4 back to 11th.

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Meanwhile, Adrian Fernandez, in 8th place, set the fastest lap of the race. The Honda rider thus closed the gap to the leading group. On lap 3, there was another crash, with KTM rider Cormach Buchanan once again caught out. The Kiwi had to be treated at the side of the track.

On lap 4, Uriarte dropped out of the leading group. The two-time winner of the current season had to serve a long-lap penalty, as did Honda rider Eddie O’Shea. At the front, Almansa stepped up the pace. Only Quiles and Alvaro Carpe were able to keep up. A second behind followed Morelli, Cruces and Rico Salmela, who had made a strong comeback. The second half of the race began without Jesus Rios. The Honda rookie crashed out in 7th place in the fast final corner. The Spaniard emerged unscathed.

Marco Morelli set the fastest lap of the race on the Aspar-CF-Moto. This allowed the Argentine to close the gap on the leaders. Everything pointed to a four-way battle for victory at Aragon. Uriarte followed in fifth, two seconds behind. Leo Rammerstorfer was running in 15th place at the start of the second half of the race.

The picture remained unchanged in lap 10 as well. David Almansa steered the top four precisely through MotorLand – just half a second separated first from fourth place. Whilst Almansa and Quiles had already celebrated GP victories, Carpe and Morelli had yet to triumph.

The first lead change came on lap 11. As they braked for Turn 1, it was now Quiles who took the lead. Another lap later, Almansa was overtaken by Carpe at the same spot, but Almansa countered immediately. However, in the mini-brawl, Maximo Quiles managed to open up a half-second lead.

With five laps to go, his lead was gone again following a mistake before the long straight. Yet once more, Quiles managed to build up a lead, as the other three got in each other’s way whilst battling for second place. But Intact ace Almansa refused to give up. With his personal best lap, he halved the gap to Quiles. By the start of the final lap, the gap had closed once more.

David Almansa (2.) kam 0,356 Sekunden hinter dem Sieger über den Zielstrich

Foto: Gold & Goose

After the Marc Márquez bend, the moment seemed to have arrived, but Quiles defended brilliantly – right up to the line. Quiles took victory on his mini-comeback – 22 days after breaking his collarbone – ahead of David Almansa and Marco Morelli. Team Ajo finished in 4th and 5th places. Casey O’Gorman took second place on the best-performing Honda.

Leo Rammerstorfer put in a remarkable performance. After a successful attack on Muñoz’s replacement, David Gonzalez, he crossed the line in 17th place. Scott Ogden claimed the final World Championship point. There was commotion in the final lap for Tech3. Perrone attacked his team-mate Salmela, and the Finn crashed whilst battling for 8th place.

The Aragon GP brought no changes to the World Championship standings. Maximo Quiles continues to lead comfortably ahead of Alvaro Carpe and David Almansa.