Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa both fell victim to the rain at the Gran Premio Movistar de Aragon.

The Spanish duo, who started from first and second on the grid made solid starts. But both dropped positions during the first lap with Marquez crossing the line in second and Pedrosa in fourth.

A battle emerged between former Moto2™ rivals Andrea Iannone (Pramac Racing) and Marquez, the Italian unfortunately running on and crashing heavily. Jorge Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) moved into second and began battling with Marquez, swapping positions frequently.

The rain began to fall and on lap 12 the white flag came out, allowing riders to change bikes. The battle between Marquez and Lorenzo raged on despite the worsening conditions. The Yamaha rider backed off, allowing Pedrosa to move into second.

The two Honda riders stayed out as Lorenzo swapped bikes, this proved to be a mistake as first Pedrosa fell heavily at Turn 1. Marquez crashed the lap after. Both remounted and swapped bikes, Marquez finishing 13th with Pedrosa behind in 14th.

“Today's race was difficult because I, like many other riders in MotoGP, had never experienced track conditions like this before. It was a shame that it started to rain; if it hadn't, then I think that Dani, Jorge and I would have made the end of the race really exciting for the fans,” reflected Marquez.

He continued, “I think that we did a good job all weekend - it was just a pity about the crash. I tried to hold on because there were only a few laps remaining, but today I learned that in these situations it is better to use a different strategy.”

Pedrosa added,

“It was a difficult race in extreme conditions, but we were able to ride a good first part and were in contention for the win. I made the wrong decision about when to come in to change bikes and didn't make the switch on the lap that I should have. My tyres couldn't hold out any longer and I crashed. Luckily I was able to remount and pick up two points from this race.”



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