MotoGP preview: Aragaon

The final five rounds of the 2014 MotoGP title see three fly-away races, including Phillip Island, book-ended by two in motorcycle racing’s current heartland of Spain. The first of those is this weekend’s race at MotorLand Aragon in the country’s north.

Championship leader Marc Marquez, needing to bounce back after an uncharacteristic slip-up in Italy, calls this “my favourite track of the year”, and with victories in both Moto2 (2011) and MotoGP (last year), it’s not hard to see why.

The Honda man’s fan club will be out in force to cheer him back to form, though with 74 points up his sleeve over second-placed teammate Dani Pedrosa his position is not exactly under threat.

The purpose-built motorsport complex only came on to the calendar in 2010 and it has quickly become a hotbed of Spanish achievement: for the last two seasons, every class has been won at Aragon by Spanish riders. Indeed across the three classes there have been just two winners who were not Spanish in Aragon’s four-year world championship history.

One of them was our own Casey Stoner, who took to Aragon at once and won there on a Ducati in 2010 and again on a Honda in 2011. Pedrosa then did the business for Honda in 2012, but last year he lost out – remember the coming-together? – after being clipped from behind by new teammate Marc Marquez, who went on to win the race.

One ‘trophy’ Dani does have from Aragon last year in the lap record, which stands at
1:48.565, an average speed of 168.3 km/h over the 5.078km circuit. There are 17 corners at MotorLand Aragon, 10 left, seven right.

Yamaha has it all to do here: no rider on the blue bikes has won at Aragon in the premier class so far. But of course Valentino Rossi arrives on the back of his first win in over a year; and Jorge Lorenzo made history of his own at Misano, claiming an outright record with his
30th premier-class pole for Yamaha.

“The main objective is to continue like this,” says Rossi, “fighting for important positions every weekend. I am just a point behind Dani in the championship and I want to fight for this position. I also especially want to be strong everywhere.”

Lorenzo, meanwhile, doesn’t want to end up as the only member of the Big Four without a win this year: “I’m still pursuing my first victory of this season and Misano again wasn’t the place, but I’m not worried about it,” he insists. “Hopefully we can complete a good weekend at Aragon and let’s see what happens! You never know. Last year I won in Motegi, a Honda track, and it was a massive surprise. I don’t see why we can’t do the same thing this year at Aragon!”

There is one ‘foreigner’ looking forward particularly eagerly to Aragon: that’s American Nicky Hayden, back at last on his Drive M7 Aspar Honda after missing the last four races for wrist surgery.

“Racing motorcycles is not only my job but my passion and it hasn't been easy for me to miss so many races,” says the 33-year-old. “I just focused on getting back as quickly as possible but riding a MotoGP machine is not something you can test your fitness for until you try it. I have been riding quite a bit of dirt-track lately but I can't say for sure how strong I am so I am looking forward to getting on the bike and seeing the results of the operation.”

Hayden was a podium finisher in third place for Ducati first time out at Aragon.

Those two apart, only three other riders have posted victories in 2014. One was Ant West in typically exceptional circumstances at Assen. The other two are Maverick Viñales, winner way back in round two at Austin and the only man other than the leading duo who still has an arithmetical chance of the title, and Dominique Aegerter, the Swiss rider who won in Germany and is now the only man to have taken part in every Moto2 race since the series began in 2010.

The lap record-holder in Moto2 at MotorLand is Marc Marquez with a time of 1:53.956 (160.4 km/h) set back in 2011 on a Suter.

Moto3: Time for Jack the Lad to hop back on the top step
Jack Miller may be set for the big leap into the MotoGP class for next year but if he wants to go up and join LCR Honda as a World Champion he needs to take the smaller but equally significant jump on to the top step of a Moto3 race podium.

“I’m raring to get out on track, because I quite like the circuit,” says Miller. “We go there off a good podium at Misano and I think we're heading in the right direction. We are strong and we will push our hardest at MotorLand to be able to fight for victory. Then we will see where we are."

Aki Ajo’s Aussie star hasn’t been up there since Germany, since when his points lead in the title race has dwindled to single figures over Alex Marquez. Marc’s younger brother comes to Aragon with the motivation of his recently announced move to Marc VDS in Moto2 behind him – and a warning for Miller:

“It is very important for me because I am changing class with a fantastic team and a strong teammate. I have been working hard to be here and I want to thank the Marc VDS Racing Team for their trust in me. But now it’s time to focus on Moto3, we are in the most important moment of the season and our mission is to fight for the championship.”

But right now Alex Rins on the other Estrella Galicia Honda is the main man in Moto3: the rangy 18-year-old has won two on the bounce, and it was Rins who won at MotorLand Aragon last year for KTM.

MotorLand’s Moto3 lap record-holder is German rider Philipp Oettl, who clocked 1:59.681 for an average lap speed of 152.7 km/h on his Kalex KTM in 2013.