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Aragon MotoGP Saturday Subscriber Notes: How A Dirty Track And Grid Decided The Sprint Race



If the MotoGP riders thought Friday was a complicated day on the new surface at the Motorland Aragon circuit, they hadn't reckoned with Saturday. Heavy rain fell overnight at the track, starting as I was leaving the circuit around 8pm, and kept falling on and off throughout the night. It left the track damp in the morning, but above all, it left the track filthy.

The region around Alcañiz, Bajo Aragon, is arid and dusty. So when rain falls, it sucks the dust and dirt from the air and deposits it on the ground. In this case, on the surface of the Motorland Aragon track. The Friday night rain had a double effect. It washed the rubber laid down on Friday off the track. And it washed the dust out of the atmosphere and onto the asphalt.

The grip, which had been improving through Friday, was completely gone on Saturday. Times in FP2 were not much to write home about, as the track dried out. Riders picked up the pace in qualifying, but even Marc Márquez' breathtaking pole time - a 1'46.766 - was nearly a whole second slower than the time he set on Friday afternoon. And Márquez was over eight tenths faster than Pedro Acosta and Pecco Bagnaia, beside him on the grid.

David Emmett Sun, 01/Sep/2024 - 07:23

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