A measured third place and a crash for a title rival sees Alex Márquez pull further clear in the fight for the Moto2 World Championship as Xavi Vierge secures another top ten finish.

• Thanks to a revised schedule, the 14th round of the season, the 21-lap Moto2 race got underway at 14:30 in ambient temperatures of 26 degrees.
• After a first lap crash for principle title rival Augusto Fernandez, Team Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS’ Alex Márquez rode a smart race to finish 3rd, collect his ninth podium of the year and extend his championship lead.
• After an intense fight team-mate Xavi Vierge took 6 important points for 10th place.

Alex Márquez, 3rd, + 2.876 s.

• Márquez emerged from the tight turn one at Motorland Aragon in 2nd place after starting from his 4th pole position of 2019.
• As Brad Binder escaped at the front of the race, Márquez was involved in an exciting 5-rider fight for second. After holding the position from laps 12 to 19, the 23-year old had the championship in mind when he lost a place to Jorge Navarro.
• Márquez came home in a comfortable 3rd place, 2.8 seconds behind race winner Binder and stretched his championship advantage from 26 to 38 points.

“We come away from here with 38 points which is the most important thing”

“It was not easy. The conditions changed quite a lot and the wind direction too, so it was difficult to understand from the beginning. I started to build up my confidence and my rhythm step-by-step. In the middle of the race I started fighting with Luca Marini and at that point I lost many, many seconds. That was the big problem of the race. For the rest I was feeling pretty good and I tried to catch Brad Binder. But it was so difficult. I didn’t have so much grip left in the rear tyre at the point. Then in the last two laps I saw that Jorge Navarro had something more than me so I said, ‘OK, third is enough.’ We come away from here with 38 points in the championship race, which is the most important thing. I’m so happy and proud of the team and we need to keep going like this.”

Xavi Vierge, 10th, +15.393 s.

• Vierge started well from 7th on the grid and gained a place on lap 1 after Fernandez’s crash.
• The 22-year old was then involved in an all-action fight for 6th which included 7 riders.
• In the end Vierge came home in 10th after losing a position to Jorge Martin on the final lap but gaining one from Fabio Di Giannantonio.

“It was a really hard race, I had to fight with the bike a lot”

“It was a really hard race for me. From the start I found it difficult to hold my rhythm and I had to fight with the bike a lot. In the end I took a top ten. I’m a bit disappointed because we expected much more. But anyway I’ll take the positive things from it. We finished another race. And now comes the flyaway races, one of the most important parts of the season and I really enjoy them. We need to keep working to achieve our objective.”

Joan Olive, Team Manager

“He had really good pace and he showed that today”

“It’s another very positive weekend for us. Alex worked really well during the weekend. He had really good pace and he showed that today. We scored many good points for the championship. Xavi is improving every race. We’re happy to see this progress and we hope to fight for podiums in the next races.”