After a solid 7th place in the Tissot Sprint where he showed competitive late pace, Maverick Viñales was looking forward to the main event with more laps to complete. The day was hot, as always in the desert of Aragón, setting a perfect stage for the fight for the new sheriff in town. As lights were out at 14:00 LT, it was once again a busy first few corners with Maverick losing some ground on his opponents. He was in 8th after sector 1 but dropped to 12th soon to begin lap 2 in 12th behind Jack Miller, with Alex Rins close behind. Some small gaps had already grown while Marquez brothers had taken the lead at the front. 'Top Gun' settled progressively into his early race pace, and he was tight behind Miller after 3 laps. Maverick geared up in lap 4 taking his lap time under the 1’48 to trigger the battle for 11th with the number 43. As he saw an opportunity, a nice move on the inside of T5 of Miller saw Maverick move up to 11th, now chasing Joan Mir, 0.377 seconds ahead. A few laps later, Mir went through Fabio Quartararo, meaning Viñales was now just in the back wheel of the Frenchman. Exiting the last corner really close, the Red Bull KTM Tech3 rider found the way to benefit from the splistream to take on Fabio in T1 at the braking. That was P10 after 9 laps for Maverick. One more position was gained when teammate Brad Binder crashed ahead, but a small mistake saw him lose ground on Mir. Back to 1.2 seconds of the 2020 MotoGP™ World Championship. However, confident in his pace, Maverick was progressively catching him up again. At the front, Marquez brothers were still leading. A solid 1’47.252 on lap 13 meant the gap to Mir was just 0.1 seconds, with 'Top Gun' ready to put some pressure on the Mir-Di Giannantonio pair ahead. Then began the battle for 7th with the 3, Maverick seized an opportunity to go through Mir, but a small mistake at the braking had him drop again to the back of the trio. Let’s try again. On lap 19 he moved past the number 49 to 8th, and then provided an extra effort to catch on Mir, but while he was on fire with his lap times, that was the end of all the chances of big points when Maverick crashed in the third sector. Limit found? The #12 did not give up though, and rejoined the race for the remaining laps, to finish it anyway with the manner, as he clocked in the 4th fastest race lap with a 1’46.941 in his last lap. That’s P18 for the Spaniard, who was not rewarded for his great efforts of the weekend, but there are many positives to bring into the next rounds.

We saw a bit of sparkle in the morning’s warm up with Enea Bastianini taking the 5th time of the 10 minute-session with a fastest lap in 1'47.140, which gave him a little boost of belief and confidence heading to the afternoon’s main event. Starting from 17th again on the grid, ‘Bestia’ managed to sneak into the group and gain two positions to 15th in the first turns, dropped to 19th in the second sector, and finally earned back two positions to exit the first lap in his initial grid position, behind Raul Fernandez. Busy opening lap. The first few laps were about settling into an early pace, making a space within the group, and we saw the number 23 change positions many times, until he settled for a while in P16 behind Marco Bezzecchi. After ten laps, he made an entrance in the top 15 finding himself 1.2 seconds off Bezzecchi, and we started to see a bit more consistency in his lap times, often in the 1’48.1 or 1’47.9. Binder’s and Quartararo’s crashes ahead meant P13 for Bestia just halfway through the race, as he was now 0.8 seconds from Raul Fernandez. A small battle for 12th then began a few laps later with Jack Miller, with both riders overtaking each other back and forth. Bastianini came out on top eventually, securing 12th for good, but that was without Alex Rins behind who had closed the gap in the meantime. The Yamaha Factory rider went through Bastianini on lap 18, but Viñales’ late crash gave Enea his 12th position back, which he kept until the checkered flag. A top 15, 4 points, and some lights throughout the weekend will be something to bring into Monday’s test, as the Red Bull KTM Tech3 team is now getting ready for a busy day of testing at MotorLand.