Marquez and Espargaro ready for home boost in Aragon
The Repsol Honda Team is back to full strength as Marc Marquez rejoins Pol Espargaro as the pair aim to ready for the last big push of the 2022 season.
Just six races of the 2022 MotoGP World Championship remain and with five of those races coming in the next six weeks, the most intense period of the year has arrived. The Aragon GP kicks off this run of races, the Spanish circuit a happy hunting ground for the Repsol Honda Team in the past. Casey Stoner won the first race for Honda there in 2011 with Dani Pedrosa and Marc Marquez continuing the run in 2012 and 2013. In total, Honda have taken seven premier class wins in Aragon.
The focus of the weekend will not be chasing a seventh win for Marc Marquez, the eight-time World Champion making his return to MotoGP after a fourth surgery on his right arm. Instead, the focus will be on working for the future, aiming to improve his fitness and to continue developing the Honda RC213V. A positive test in Misano and his subsequent recovery demonstrated to Marquez and the Repsol Honda Team that it is time to begin the next stage of his recovery.
An equally successful test after the San Marino GP has Pol Espargaro motivated for the end of the year. The first objective of the weekend in Aragon will be confirming the learnings from the test, the #44 aiming to make gains especially during Saturday’s time attack. Aragon has been the scene of consistent point scoring for Espargaro in the premier class with a best result of fourth coming in 2020.
Aragon marks the start of a triple header, the entire MotoGP paddock heading directly to Motegi for the Japanese GP after the race.
Marc Marquez
“Well, what can I say? I am very excited to return to MotoGP this weekend, especially at such a special track for me like Aragon. The objective this weekend is not to go out and fight straight away, it is to build up everything and prepare well for the future. Build myself, the bike, everything. Misano was good but the race weekend will be different, there’s more intensity and less time to rest so it will be a different kind of challenge. I have been doing a lot of recovery work and continuing in the gym as well as riding a bike again before this weekend. I am very happy to be back!”
Pol Espargaro
“We had a good test in Misano and I have had a positive week training and recovering at home, so I am looking forward to racing in Aragon this weekend. Of course all the local fans provide a nice boost and after what we found during the test, I’m aiming for a positive weekend. It’s important to start this period well because we have a lot of races in not a lot of time, so we need to build momentum and carry it to this series of races. Our first job is to confirm what we found in Misano and see how the weekend develops.”
Location Information
An ultra-modern facility, MotorLand Aragón had its roots firmly established thanks to a solid history of street racing in Alcañiz, which hosted events between 1963 and 2003. Safety advice warning against the continuation of this led to the proposal and construction of a sporting complex dedicated to motorsport. With support… read more.
| Length | 5.078 kilometres / 3.155 miles |
| Width | 15 metres |
| Left corners | 10 |
| Right corners | 7 |
| Longest straight | 0.968 kilometres / 0.601 miles |
| Constructed | 2009 |
Motorland Aragón, Teruel, Spain - View in Google Maps
Records
| Pole Position | 1m 46.069s (172.3Km/h) Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati, 2022) |
| Race Lap | 1m 47.795s (169.5Km/h) Luca Marini (Ducati, 2022) |
| Race Time | 41m 35.462s (168.4 km/h) Enea Bastianini (Ducati, 2022) |
| 2022 Race Winner | Enea Bastianini (Ducati) |
