Marco Bezzecchi and Marc Marquez were side-by-side for hundreds of metres at north of 315km/h, separated by the width of a credit card, when the Italian shot the Spaniard a sideways glance.
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When was Marquez going to brake, Bezzecchi thought? Can I brake later? What will happen if I do?
It was lap six of Sunday’s Aragon Grand Prix where Marquez – unusually for him, not in the lead at a track that history has shown to be one of his most imposing – ambushed race-leader Bezzecchi down the inside of the slow left-handed Turn 15, the bikes straightening up to traverse Aragon’s longest straight, a 968-metre blast to the last sequence of corners to complete the lap.
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Bezzecchi took the inside line, Marquez the middle of the track, and the Aprilia and Ducati engaged in a drag race to the penultimate corner, their bikes drifting towards one another like magnets before briefly moving apart, then coming back together again.
How they never clattered into one another is anyone’s guess. Including both riders.
“We had an amazing battle with the aerodynamic effect, the bikes were moving and all the straight I was like ‘where is he going to brake?,” Bezzecchi laughed afterwards
“It was strange. I wanted to try to cross the line in Turn 15 when he passed me … his bike accelerated really well and my bike [did] too. It was a strange feeling because with the air, I was going close to him but I didn’t want to go too close.”
“Even on the bike, it was a very strange moment because with all of the aerodynamics, there was one moment there where our bikes were sucking towards each other,” Marquez added.
“I tried to go on the right side, but my bike [was being sucked] towards his and his towards mine. There was some small wheelie in sixth gear, so it was a scary moment.”
Scary, yes; it was also the moment that was the first step in Marquez winning at Aragon for the third straight year, and the eighth time in all in MotoGP.
KTM’s Pedro Acosta, in third place and with a front-row seat for the Marquez/Bezzecchi battle, opportunistically settled into second as Bezzecchi ran wide, then ran in Marquez’s wheel tracks for the next seven laps. Marquez, though, had time to execute his next plan.
At the track where he’s been more dominant over the years than any circuit bar the Sachsenring in Germany, where he’s won 10 times in MotoGP, Marquez kept his cool, Acosta behind him, and bided his time.
