Moto3 & Moto2 Round-up: Quiles does Quiles things as López ends the long wait in Aragón
Maximo Quiles waited until the final lap to nick a frantic Moto3 race from David Almansa, before Alonso López provided the rather less complicated sequel with a lights-to-flag Moto2 win.
If Moto3 ever introduces a rule requiring riders to remain in roughly the same position for more than thirty seconds, half the grid will need retraining.
For most of Sunday's Aragón Grand Prix, David Almansa looked as though he had the thing under control.
The Silverstone winner had been quick all weekend, took pole with a new lap record and then led virtually the entire race while Maximo Quiles sat behind him looking suspiciously patient.
Which, in Moto3, is usually when you should start worrying.
Almansa was excellent. He absorbed the pressure and repeatedly got the drive he needed onto MotorLand's enormous back straight. Behind them, Alvaro Carpe and Marco Morelli made it a four-way argument, while Brian Uriarte's afternoon was complicated by the long-lap penalty he'd brought with him from Saturday.
Morelli was particularly entertaining. At various points he appeared to regard the white lines as more of a planning suggestion, yet remained extremely fast. His 1:56.675 on lap five was a new race lap record.
By the closing stages it had boiled down to Almansa versus Quiles.
And Quiles had clearly been taking notes.
With two laps remaining he finally went through. Almansa came straight back. Morelli arrived because apparently two riders trying to ruin each other's afternoon wasn't enough, and Carpe remained close enough to join in if anybody fancied making things properly stupid.
Then came the final lap.
For sixteen laps they'd shown remarkable restraint for a collection of teenagers on motorcycles doing about 150mph. Then they reached the final few corners and remembered they were Moto3 riders.
Quiles got himself where he needed to be and emerged from the final corner ahead, beating Almansa to the line by 0.264 seconds. Morelli was only 0.715 seconds from the winner in third, with Carpe fourth.
It was Quiles' seventh victory of the season and another demonstration of why the championship is beginning to look less like a title fight and more like somebody being followed home.
He didn't dominate the race. He didn't need to.
He just spent most of it sitting behind Almansa before taking the bit he actually wanted.
Quiles leaves Aragón on 256 points, 97 clear of Carpe, with Almansa another five points back in third.
At some point somebody may have to tell Maximo the remaining races are compulsory.
Uriarte recovered from his long lap to finish fifth, ahead of Adrian Cruces and an excellent Casey O'Gorman in seventh.
There were crashes for Nicola Carraro and Jesus Rios. Cormac Buchanan also suffered a nasty early accident and was taken to the medical centre. With no firm subsequent medical update available at the time of writing, that's as far as it is sensible to go.
López remembers what winning feels like
Moto2 then arrived and behaved like the responsible adult who'd been called to collect Moto3 from the police station.
Alonso López started from pole.
He led into Turn 1.
He led every lap.
He won.
Frankly inconsiderate if you're trying to write a race report.
It was, however, a superb ride.
Izan Guevara followed him early on, while Collin Veijer worked his way into third. Behind them, championship leader Manuel González was having a considerably less enjoyable time.
Starting fourth, González gradually went backwards as David Alonso, Senna Agius and eventually Ivan Ortolá came through. A couple of braking mistakes didn't help. One late moment briefly threatened to turn a disappointing afternoon into a visit to the parts department.
Meanwhile, David Alonso was coming.
The Colombian passed González, dealt with teammate Daniel Holgado and then went after Veijer. With five laps remaining he took third. Moments later Veijer crashed at Turn 4.
That left López comfortably out front while Guevara discovered he had a rapidly approaching David Alonso in his mirrors.
Those two at least had the decency to provide some final-lap nonsense.
Alonso attacked through the corkscrew. Guevara fought him off. Alonso tried again at the final corner and briefly appeared to have second, only for Guevara to cut underneath him and nick it back.
They crossed the line separated by 0.081 seconds.
López was already 0.800 seconds up the road, presumably wondering why everyone else had made such hard work of it.
Agius finished fourth and Ortolá completed an excellent recovery from 14th on the grid to fifth. González salvaged sixth ahead of Holgado.
The championship leader still leaves Aragón in charge, just with a little less furniture between himself and the chasing pack. González has 207.5 points, Guevara 175 and Agius 149.
So, two very different races.
Moto3 gave us seventeen laps of tactical manoeuvring followed by several teenagers attempting to occupy the same piece of Spanish tarmac.
Moto2 gave us Alonso López disappearing up the road while everybody else argued over the two remaining chairs.
Quiles keeps winning. López has finally remembered how.
