This weekend, riders will descend on MotorLand Aragón for the 14th round of this year’s MotoGP. As it stands, Spaniards Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa are first and second place with a respective 289 and 215 points. Valentino completes the top three and, being only a single point adrift from Pedrosa, the Italian racer hopes this weekend may be a game changer.
We’re gearing up for a pretty exciting race, as Marquez and Pedrosa will be battling it out in front of their home fans. The last GP race in San Marino saw Marquez crashing out on lap ten, re-joining the race and then finishing in 15th place. Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo finished a respective first and second, with Pedrosa completing the podium.
Rossi’s win in his home country was met by huge applause from the Italian crowd. His victory came more than 18 years after his first GP win back in 1996, which makes him the rider with the longest winning GP racing career, taking the title from long-time pal Loris Capirossi.
The circuit
MotorLand Aragón is a super-modern facility, designed by renowned German architect Hermann Tilke and British architectural company Foster + Partners. The circuit is located near Alcañiz, which hosted numerous street racing events from 1963-2003. The safety of the events threatened their continuation, which resulted in the proposal of creating a sporting complex. And thus, MotorLand was constructed in 2009.
The track is 3.155 miles long with 17 turns (10 lefts; 7 rights), with the longest straight running at 969m. The circuit hosted its first MotoGP event back in 2010 and was highly praised by riders. In fact, it was awarded IRTA Best Grand Prix of the Year- the first time a track had received the award in its debut year.
When it comes to racing on the MotorLand Aragón circuit, both Pedrosa and Marques have experienced their fair share of ups and downs. In 2010, Marquez crashed out on the first lap in the 125cc class, but made a triumphant return in Moto2 the following year. In 2012 he finished 2nd in the intermediary class and then came first in the MotoGP last year.
Pedrosa came 2nd place in both the 2010 and 2011 races, before going on to win in 2012. Last year, a clash with Marquez resulted in a DNF for the rider.
Commenting on this weekend, Marquez said:
“After a disappointing weekend in Italy, it will be nice to return home to race in front of our home fans in Aragón this weekend and also my fan club will be coming. This is my favourite track of the year and we’ve had good results here in the past three years so I hope to continue this way. It has technical first and final sections, and you need to be strong in cornering.”
Pedrosa added that aside from last year, he’s always done well in Aragón and he is “looking forward to racing in front of [his] home crowd again, [as] the support is always great and gives you motivation.”
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