Alex Marquez takes crucial podium in Aragon, Xavi Vierge finishes tenth

Thanks to a revised schedule, the 14th round of the season, the 21-lap Moto2 race got underway at 14:30 in ambient temperatures of 26 degrees.

After a first lap crash for principle title rival Augusto Fernandez, Team Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS’ Alex Márquez rode a smart race to finish 3rd, collect his ninth podium of the year and extend his championship lead.

After an intense fight team-mate Xavi Vierge took 6 important points for 10th place.

Álex Márquez
3rd, +2.876 s.
“It was not easy. The conditions changed quite a lot and the wind direction too, so it was difficult to understand from the beginning. I started to build up my confidence and my rhythm step-by-step. In the middle of the race I started fighting with Luca Marini and at that point I lost many, many seconds. That was the big problem of the race. For the rest I was feeling pretty good and I tried to catch Brad Binder. But it was so difficult. I didn’t have so much grip left in the rear tyre at the point. Then in the last two laps I saw that Jorge Navarro had something more than me so I said, ‘OK, third is enough.’ We come away from here with 38 points in the championship race, which is the most important thing. I’m so happy and proud of the team and we need to keep going like this.”

Xavi Vierge
10th, +15.393 s.
“It was a really hard race for me. From the start I found it difficult to hold my rhythm and I had to fight with the bike a lot. In the end I took a top ten. I’m a bit disappointed because we expected much more. But anyway I’ll take the positive things from it. We finished another race. And now comes the flyaway races, one of the most important parts of the season and I really enjoy them. We need to keep working to achieve our objective.”