Yamaha rider Valentino Rossi had a superb ride in Aragon on Sunday as he threatened to take the lead in the early race laps, just 24 days after sustaining a leg injury, before settling into fifth place, which he held over the line.
Rossi had the crowds rooting for him during his first race since his enduro accident.
Though he had a difficult launch from his starting position, he held on to his third place going into turn 1.
Seeing Jorge Lorenzo trying to take off at the front on the first lap, the Doctor wasn‘t about to waste any time and responded by passing his teammate a couple of corners later.
He set a provisional fastest lap on lap 2 of 1‘49.334s as he chased down his rival, and soon closed the gap.
Despite riding with a leg injury, Rossi was pushing to the fullest. The top-4 riders bunched up as the Italian started to pressure Lorenzo, but he was unable to make a move whilst fending off Marquez and Dovizioso.
With 11 laps to go, fatigue had the number 46 rider slow down a couple of tenths, allowing Marquez and Dani Pedrosa through, but he still had some fighting spirit left.
He had the fans hold their breath as he battled hard with his teammate for fourth position, but ultimately took the chequered flag in fifth place, 5.882s from the front.
“I'm quite proud, because a week ago I didn‘t know if I would be able to race,” he said afterwards. “Achieving a start from the first row yesterday was already great, I was very happy. I knew I had to suffer in the second half of the race. I had some pain and we also suffered from the degradation of the tyre.”
“The work continues after this race. The calendar works out well for me, I have two full weeks to train and improve my leg‘s condition. After this we have Motegi, which is going to be very important, but we also have three races in a row. This will be very difficult for my leg, so I want to try to arrive in Motegi - maybe not at 100% - but quite fit.”
