Márquez gives Aragón a reminder of who owns the place
Marco Bezzecchi had the pole, the lap record and, briefly, the lead. Pedro Acosta had a go too. Then Marc Márquez stopped messing about. MotoGP heads to Misano with its top three covered by just 24 points.
For approximately six laps on Sunday afternoon, there was a tantalising possibility that Marc Márquez might not win the Aragón Grand Prix.
It was nice while it lasted.
Marco Bezzecchi had spent the weekend doing a fairly convincing impression of the fastest motorcycle racer in Spain. He had topped Practice, broken the outright lap record, become the first man ever into the 1:44s at MotorLand and stuck the Aprilia on pole.
He'd also been mugged by Márquez at Turn 1 in Saturday's Sprint.
So when exactly the same thing began happening again on Sunday, you could have forgiven him for thinking, oh FFS!
Márquez launched his Ducati down the inside at Turn 1 with another enormous braking move and appeared to have done it again.
Except this time Bez was waiting for him.
What happened next was exquisite.
Márquez's rear ride-height device hadn't disengaged, leaving the Ducati dragging itself through Turns 2 and 3 like me trying to get through the cat flap after leaving my keys in the pub. Bezzecchi saw it instantly, swept back through and retook the lead. Jorge Martin followed him through for good measure.
For a few glorious moments, Aprilia were running first and second and Bezzecchi had clear track ahead of him.
Given what we've seen him do with clear track this season, it looked ominous.
Márquez evidently thought so too
He dispensed with Martin fairly promptly, with sufficient urgency to allow Pedro Acosta through as well, and set off after Bez.
Then came the moment of the race.
Márquez attacked Bezzecchi at Turn 15. Bez wasn't remotely interested in surrendering and the pair fired themselves onto MotorLand's back straight shoulder to shoulder at comfortably north of 300km/h.
Not figuratively shoulder to shoulder.
Actually shoulder to shoulder.
Two MotoGP bikes, flat out, with approximately enough room between them to slide a Rizla paper.
Neither man lifted.
Watching MotoGP occasionally involves the uncomfortable realisation that the people doing it have a fundamentally different relationship with mortality to the rest of us.
This was one of those occasions.
Bezzecchi later explained that he'd picked up Márquez's slipstream as they exited Turn 15, but with the bikes so close together the aerodynamic effect was actually pushing them towards each other.
Which is an interesting thing to discover at 200mph.
I'd probably have pulled over and had a little cry.
Bez kept it pinned.
Márquez eventually got the move completed, and while Bezzecchi was still processing whatever the hell had just happened, Acosta went around the outside and took second.
And for a while, Pedro looked properly tasty.
Enter the shark
Acosta had been excellent in Saturday's Sprint but this was something else.
The KTM rider sat on Márquez's rear wheel and matched him lap for lap. On lap nine Márquez set a 1:47.169.
Acosta did a 1:47.169.
Not similar. The same.
There were moments when it genuinely looked as though the 21-year-old might be about to spoil the enormous red 93-themed garden party taking place around MotorLand.
He was particularly menacing under braking and repeatedly clawed ground back into Turn 14.
Márquez couldn't shake him.
Until he could.
And this was where the whole thing became slightly ridiculous.
Lap 13: 1:46.910.
Lap 14: quicker.
Lap 15: another 1:46.
Lap 16: another one.
Four successive laps in the 1:46s, in the middle of a searingly hot Grand Prix, after spending the opening third of it fighting Bezzecchi and Acosta.
That was it.
No accident. No tyre problem. No desperate lunge from Acosta.
Márquez simply decided the race had gone on long enough and efffed off.
There isn't really a more sophisticated technical analysis available.
Acosta had been riding brilliantly. Bezzecchi had been brilliant all weekend.
Marc gave them both a proverbial slap on the arse and told them to go and play nicely somewhere else.
By the time Acosta realised what had happened, the gap was opening.
The contest was over.
Acosta nevertheless deserves enormous credit.
He finished only 1.7 seconds behind Márquez and 24 seconds ahead of the next KTM, Enea Bastianini.
Twenty-four seconds.
Same motorcycle manufacturer. Same race. Enough time to fry an egg on the MotorLand asphalt.
It was Acosta's 14th MotoGP podium and yet another second place while he continues searching for that first victory.
Calling it frustrating would be understandable. Calling it anything other than an exceptional ride would be ridiculous.
Even his KTM team described the performance as another level.
Bezzecchi completed the podium and, oddly, third almost felt like a disappointment after the speed he'd shown all weekend.
It shouldn't.
Pole position. A new outright lap record. Third in the Sprint. Third in the Grand Prix. Four consecutive podiums since the summer break.
Most importantly, he's still right in this championship.
Martin finished fifth for the second day running, behind Alex Márquez, and suddenly the numbers have become rather interesting.
Marc arrived in Aragón 40 points behind the championship leader.
He leaves 19 behind.
And the top three are covered by 24 points.
Nine weekends remain.
Oh good.
Meanwhile, at Ducati, Pecco Bagnaia crashed.
Again.
That's six DNFs from 13 Grands Prix this season and 12 from his last 19.
There are probably more cheerful statistics available. I haven't looked for them.
Raúl Fernández's excellent recent run also ended miserably with a gearing problem forcing the Silverstone winner into retirement, while Fabio Quartararo eventually finished last after an afternoon on the Yamaha that appeared to involve several different varieties of disappointment.
Fermín Aldeguer deserves considerably happier mention. Returning from serious neck and back injuries, he finished sixth in both races.
Jack Miller also had another strong afternoon before Brad Binder nicked tenth from him late on.
But none of that was what 51,000 people had turned up to see.
They came for Márquez.
And eventually Márquez did what Márquez does at MotorLand.
Eight Aragón Grand Prix victories.
Three consecutive Sprint and Grand Prix doubles here since joining Ducati.
Win number 77 of his MotoGP career.
When asked afterwards how he'd done it, Marc explained that after the early battles he simply built his pace, then attacked when the moment arrived, opened the gap and managed it.
Of course he did.
Why hadn't anybody else thought of that?
Next stop: Bez's house
And this is where it gets interesting.
Misano is next.
Bezzecchi's backyard.
A clockwise circuit rather than the anti-clockwise playground Márquez has just spent the weekend treating as private property, and a place where Bez won last year's Sprint and pushed Marc extremely hard in the Grand Prix.
Martin still leads.
Márquez is coming.
Bezzecchi isn't going anywhere.
Twenty-four points cover all three with nine weekends remaining.
And Pedro Acosta has just spent half a Grand Prix hanging off the back of the reigning world champion looking like he fancied a fight.
The 2026 MotoGP championship has spent much of the year threatening to become silly.
It may finally be about to deliver.
