After a day that started off being delayed by heavy fog, Marc Marquez turned on the lights for the thousands of home fans that had come to watch the Spaniard perform to win the Aragon Grand Prix on Sunday.

After starting from fifth on the grid, Marquez took a little time to up the pace as Jorge Lorenzo took the hole shot from maverick Vinales, who, after starting on pole, dropped down through the field at the start. Jorge lead for the majority of the race whilst being stalked by the wounded Valentino Rossi, who stayed close to the Ducati for more than half the race.

At one stage Marquez overtook both Rossi and Lorenzo, after getting past the second Ducat of Andrea Dovizioso, who had taken third place on lap one after starting 7th on the grid, but the Repsol Honda rider ran wide and ended up back in fourth behind Dovi once again.

Rossi soon began to fade, as did Dovizioso with Marquez eventually getting past Lorenzo for the lead of the race. Lorenzo tried to fight back but was unable to do so and eventually lost out to Dan Pedrosa, who fought his way back after being held up by Maverick Vinales for the majority of the race.

Vinales then made his way past the fading Rossi for fourth with Valentino eventually crossing the line in fifth place overall.

“The tyre choice played a big role in the outcome of today‘s race,” said Yamaha's Massimo Meregalli. “We only had limited time to try the different specs on the dry this weekend, so this made the decision quite difficult. Both riders decided to use the hard rear tyre option for durability reasons. Though they managed the tyre life by trying to ride as smoothly as possible, in the end the tyres still dropped.”

“Furthermore, Maverick had difficulties getting heat into the tyre at the beginning. It was unfortunate that, by the time the tyre started working better, the gap had become too big for him to close, but I think we all got a thrill from his fight with Valentino. It is fantastic to see Vale already battling at the front in the race, just 24 days after his accident. He did a truly amazing job today and has consistently exceeded our expectations throughout the weekend. We look forward to seeing him race again in Motegi, when he has had time to further recover from his leg injury.”

Andrea Dovizioso meanwhile, slipped back to his starting place of 7th, meaning that Marquez has pulled out a 16 point lead going into the flyaway events in Japan, Australia and Malaysia.

GP of Aragon – Race classification:
1. Marc MARQUEZ, Repsol Honda Team - 42'06.816
2. Dani PEDROSA, Repsol Honda Team - +0.879
3. Jorge LORENZO, Ducati Team - +2.028
4. Maverick VIÑALES, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP - +5.256
5. Valentino ROSSI, Movistar Yamaha MotoGP - +5.882
6. Aleix ESPARGARO, Aprilia Racing Team Gresini - +6.962
7. Andrea DOVIZIOSO, Ducati Team - +7.455
8. Alvaro BAUTISTA, Pull&Bear Aspar Team - +7.910
9. Johann ZARCO, Monster Yamaha Tech 3 - +13.002
10. Pol ESPARGARO, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing - +14.075
11. Mika KALLIO, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing - +17.192
12. Andrea IANNONE, Team SUZUKI ECSTAR - +20.632
13. Jack MILLER, EG 0,0 Marc VDS - +23.886
14. Scott REDDING, OCTO Pramac Racing - +25.523
15. Tito RABAT, EG 0,0 Marc VDS - +26.082
16. Jonas FOLGER, Monster Yamaha Tech 3 - +30.302
17. Alex RINS, Team SUZUKI ECSTAR - +31.874
18. Hector BARBERA, Reale Avintia Racing - +31.948
19. Bradley SMITH, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing - +36.296
20. Danilo PETRUCCI, OCTO Pramac Racing - +37.842
21. Loris BAZ, Reale Avintia Racing - +47.599
22. Sam LOWES, Aprilia Racing Team Gresini - +47.647
Not Classified
Cal CRUTCHLOW, LCR Honda - 7 Laps
Karel ABRAHAM, Pull&Bear Aspar Team - 13 Laps

MotoGP World Standing 2017:
1. Marc MARQUEZ, Honda - 224
2. Andrea DOVIZIOSO, Ducati - 208
3. Maverick VIÑALES, Yamaha - 196
4. Dani PEDROSA, Honda - 170
5. Valentino ROSSI, Yamaha - 168
6. Johann ZARCO, Yamaha - 117
7. Jorge LORENZO, Ducati - 106
8. Danilo PETRUCCI, Ducati - 95
9. Cal CRUTCHLOW, Honda - 92
10. Jonas FOLGER, Yamaha - 84
11. Alvaro BAUTISTA, Ducati - 70
12. Jack MILLER, Honda - 56
13. Scott REDDING, Ducati - 56
14. Aleix ESPARGARO, Aprilia - 53
15. Loris BAZ, Ducati - 39
16. Andrea IANNONE, Suzuki - 37
17. Pol ESPARGARO, KTM - 37
18. Karel ABRAHAM, Ducati - 28
19. Tito RABAT, Honda - 28
20. Alex RINS Suzuki - 27
21. Hector BARBERA, Ducati - 23
22. Michele PIRRO, Ducati - 18
23. Bradley SMITH, KTM - 14
24. Mika KALLIO, KTM - 11
25. Sam LOWES, Aprilia - 2
26. Sylvain GUINTOLI, Suzuki – 1