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Is the Aragon GP Marc Marquez’s best chance of a MotoGP win in 2024? | MotoGP
It’s been over 1000 days since Marc Marquez last won a MotoGP race. Will that streak come to an end at the 2024 Aragon Grand Prix?
The eight-time world champion has endured a tough couple of years on the Honda, leading to leaner times in terms of results.
His switch to the Gresini-run Ducati this year has seen him visit the podium nine times across sprints and grands prix, with a first victory since the Emilia Romagna GP in 2021 coming close on a number of occasions.
MotoGP returns to Aragon for the first time since 2022 and to a track that Marquez has enjoyed a lot of success around, with the Spaniard winning six times across his career.
On the latest episode of the Crash MotoGP Podcast, our journalists ask whether or not Aragon is a track where Marquez can finally break his duck.
“I think, for me, the big thing to be watching for this weekend is Marc,” MotoGP journalist Lewis Duncan said.
“It’s left-handed circuit, he’s always been really good at Aragon. I think this next few weeks really represents the best opportunity for Marc to win a grand prix this year.
“We’ve got Aragon where he’s always been strong and it really suits his style.
“And with having a year off and the new surface, the year-old Ducati is probably going to hit the ground running a bit quicker than maybe the factory bike because it’s a bit more dialled in generally.
“I’m expecting big things from Marc this weekend and if it doesn’t happen, I will be very disappointed because I think this does represent one of a couple of really, really big chances in the coming weeks.”
Ducati has been the bike to beat at Aragon for the last few years, with Marquez losing out to Francesco Bagnaia in a duel in 2022.
“Ducati have really liked it round here in the last few visits we’ve had, Bastianini winning the last time in ’22 and Pecco beating Marc in ’21,” Jordan Moreland, Social Media Manager at Crash.net, added.
“Marc has got the great machinery under him now and he’s won round here six times in all classes, and of course he’s got a corner names after him at this circuit as well.
“So, not to put any pressure on Marc Marquez, I don’t think he needs pressure from us, but it seems like this is the opportunity to have a real go and fight with Bagnaia, for example.”
Crash.net’s MotoGP Editor Peter McLaren noted: “I think it’s a great chance to get back to that Jerez, Le Mans form he had, really mixing it with the top two guys.
“As you say, it’s a great track for him. The Marquez brothers almost adopt it as their local race, there’s always a big fan club following there.
“Aragon, middle of nowhere really, but they’ve always adopted that track as one of their own. So, he’ll have plenty of motivation to do well and it’s one of his best chances.
“There’s two or three races, the anticlockwise tracks coming up, Valencia, Phillip Island being the other ones; Buriram he’s very good at as well.
“But it’s not going to be easy for him, a lot of people would have thought he would have won by now.
“And that makes it all the more important to make the best of these opportunities. I know Marc is saying ‘look, it doesn’t really matter it’s 1000 days now [since his last win], next year I’ll get them if I don’t this year’.
“But it’s Marc Marquez, he wants to win, doesn’t he? It’s hard to see this weekend not being a good chance to do that, so a lot of it will depend on Friday, not only on him but on guys like Bagnaia.
“If Bagnaia is top of the standings on day one, that’s not good news for the others.”
