There is another race weekend at the Motorland Aragón circuit ahead of the riders. This weekend the Grand Premio Liqui Moly de Teruel will be held. Here is the preview.
Motorland Aragón first hosted a Grand Prix in 2010 and became the sixth different circuit in Spain which was used for GP.
The town of Alcañiz, which is nearby, used to host motorbike events on the street circuit between 1963 and 2003. Safety advice warning against the continuation of this led to the proposal and construction of a sporting complex dedicated to motorsport. So Motorland Aragón circuit was built.
The track is 5.1 km long with the longest straight having 968 m. There are 17 corners at the track, 10 are left and 7 are right. The width of the track is 15 m.
Because of the covid-19 situation the race weekend will be held without any public at the grandstands.
It looks like the weather will be very similar to the one riders experienced during the last weekend. There are cold morning temperatures expected, it may be only around 3°C. But during the day it should be up to 20°C and sunny. Already last weekend the time schedule was a little bit changed due to cold morning temperatures. Also this weekend the schedule will be different, so pay attention to it. I’ll share it at the end of the article, as usual.
MotoGP
There are 4 races remaining until the end of the season 2020. It means 100 points are available to fight for. It means that all the riders who are within 100 points behind the leader have the mathematical chance to win the title. When you look at the Championship standing you realize that there are 18 riders within these 100 points! The battle for the 2020 crown is still very open.
After last weekend’s Grand Prix of Aragón Joan Mir has moved into the lead in the Championship. It means that after many years there is a Suzuki rider on top. The Spanish rider has never won a MotoGP race but this year he’s been showing great performances, he is almost regularly inside Top 5 in the races and this consistency is the key to be on top now. Mir has 121 points and he may definitely fight for another podium finish this weekend at his home track.
It was a disaster for Fabio Quartararo last Sunday. After the start from pole position he was not able to keep the pace, to have the speed and he finished only on the 18th position so he didn’t take any points and he lost his Championship lead. After the race he was complaining about the tyres quite a lot (and he wasn’t the only one). With some data and knowledge we can expect that he and the team will improve this to the other race at the Motorland Aragón track. It looks like the track conditions will be very similar to the previous ones so it’s difficult to predict anything but clearly Quartararo will try to fight for having the Championship lead back.
Maverick Viñales had actually a good race last weekend. He also suffered with some problems but in the end he was able to keep the fourth place in the race and he was even closing on the third one. So this weekend we can expect that he will be among the riders in the leading group again. Also he can be proud about his Aragón GP start and this is a thing he would certainly like to repeat also this Sunday.
Andrea Dovizioso had a difficult weekend last week in Aragón. There is another race weekend coming at the race track so it’s hard to predict anything about Dovi and about Ducati in general. All the Ducati bikes seemed to struggle in the track conditions last week. However, Dovizioso still has a big chance to fight for the title so he will try so.
Top 5 of the Championship is completed with Takaaki Nakagami. Even though he’s never been on the podium, he is only 29 points behind the Championhip leader Joan Mir. The consistency is the key also in this case. Nakagami has scored points in all the previous 10 races and he is the only rider scoring points in all the races this year until now.
Based on the recent results, don’t discount Alex Rins, last week’s race winner, and Alex Márquez, who had two great results in the past two weeks. There are some other riders who can be able to fight on top, for example Franco Morbidelli or Jack Miller.
Last weekend none of the KTM riders was able to finish in Top 10 so let’s wait and see how they will manage the upcoming race weekend.
Due to his positive test for covid-19 Valentino Rossi won’t be able to take part in the Grand Prix of Teruel. His Yamaha team has announced that there wouldn’t be anybody to replace him.
The All Time Lap Record is 1:46.635 and it is also the Best Pole. The time is being held by Marc Márquez from 2015. Jorge Lorenzo set the Best Race Lap by 1:48.120 also in 2015. Last weekend Francesco Bagnaia improved the Top Speed, he rode 351.8 km/h.
Moto2
There has been quite a turnaround in the Moto2 category after the race at Aragón last weekend. Enea Bastianini took 20 points for the 2nd place and it helped him to move up to the Championship lead. However, the situation on the top places of the standing is very close. Bastianini has 155 points and he will have it difficult to defend this lead because it’s really tiny. But last weekend he showed good speed so we can expect him fighting for Top 5 positions also this weekend.
Sam Lowes won two previous races and it made him into the title battle even more. He’s been constant during the whole season so far but these 50 points in total from past two weeks mean that he is the Championship contender, no doubt about it. He is very close behind Bastianini, he has 153 points. With his excellent results from recent times it may happen that he will be the leader after this weekend. Aragón seems to be a good track for him, he’ll be fighting for top positions again.
This part of the season with tripple races haven’t been very good for Luca Marini so far. While Lowes took 50 points in total, Marini took 0 points in total. And it’s a difference. After last weekend’s race, where he crashed already at its beginning, he dropped to third place overall. However, he is still in the contact with the riders ahead of him as he has 150 points. Yes, Top 3 are within 5 points at the moment! His team mate Marco Bezzecchi had a bad Sunday last weekend too. He crashed from the lead and he fell down to the 4th place in the standing of the Championship. He has now 130 points so he is exactly 25 points = a victory behind the Championship leader. They both will certainly try to forget this bad day and they will be in the contest for podium during the second race weekend at the Spanish track.
Although he didn’t score points in 5 races, somehow Jorge Martín sits on the 5th place overall. But he’s already 60 points behind the leader, however, mathematically he is still in the title battle as well as there are 4 races remaining and it means there are 100 points in the game. He had a good race last weekend at Aragón, he was on the podium so it looks like he is back in the shape and we should count with him for top result also this weekend.
Recently also Joe Roberts, Remy Gardner and Jake Dixon have been showing good performances so don’t discount them. Also Marcos Ramírez had a good race last weekend and he can definitely repeat it or even improve it. Also Fabio Di Giannantonio had great race last weekend at Aragón, he was fighting for a podium finish or maybe even for a victory but unfortunately for him he had a crash. But his performance indicated that he could be strong also this weekend.
Due to his finger injury Aron Canet won’t be able to take part at the Grand Prix of Teruel.
All the track records was improved last weekend. The All Time Lap Record is now 1:51.651 and it’s also the Best Pole. Sam Lowes did this time. The Best Race Lap is being held by Jorge Martín and it’s 1:52.081. Luca Marini holds the Top Speed record with 295.2 km/h.
Moto3
There may have been changes in the Championship lead in MotoGP and Moto2 but it definitely hasn’t happened in Moto3. Albert Arenas had a good race last weekend, he was fighting for the podium positions, however, in the final few laps it didn’t go according to the plan but still he was able to score more points than his main title rivals. At the moment he has 144 points and he has 13 points lead ahead of the second one.
Ai Ogura has been struggling recently. In France two weeks ago he took 7 points but his situation was even worse last weekend at Aragón. He could have been happy for taking at least 2 points. After the great results in his first part of the season now it seems like he is not in his best moment and, although it’s hard to predict, another difficult race may have been ahead of him.
Celestino Vietti won at Le Mans but last weekend he wasn’t able to keep the speed to stay in the front group of the race. After the start he lost some positions and then it was hard for him to move up. He scored some points for 9th place and he is still in the title contest.
Tony Arbolino had to skip the Grand Prix of Aragón and it was his first race of the season in which he didn’t score any points. Although being tested negative for covid-19 he had to stay in the quarantine because he had been around someone later detected as covid-19 positive. His 10 days long quarantine is finished now so he should be able to take part in this weekend’s Grand Prix.
There is still also John McPhee in the game for the title although he had some DNFs this season and if he would like to fight for the title he should avoid any big mistakes. However, it’s easy to say it in Moto3 but difficult to do it because sometimes the DNF isn’t really your fault. Let’s watch also Jaume Masia who did great job last weekend and took his first season victory. Raúl Fernández was able to take his first podium finish in his Moto3 career last weekend so he can be strong also this weekend. There are also some other riders capable of fighting for top places, for example Darryn Binder, Tatsuki Suzuki or Romano Fenati.
The Italian rider Riccardo Rossi has been tested positive for coronavirus so he is forced to skip the Grand Prix of Teruel this weekend. According to the news he is asymptomatic. Wishing him speedy recovery!
The All Time Lap Record is 1:57.066 and it’s also the Best Pole, Jorge Martín holds this record from 2018. Last weekend Darryn Binder set the Best Race Lap with 1:58.070. Also the Top Speed was improved last weekend, Jaume Masia rode 248.5 km/h.
Rookies Cup
It’s another race weekend also for the riders of the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup. Last weekend they had two races at the Motorland Aragón track, this weekend they will have another two races there. Pedro Acosta is the Championship leader and so far he’s been showing an incredible performance this season. He won all 6 previous races so at the moment he has the maximum of 150 points by his name. During the first race at Aragón he had to fight hard to win but in the second race he showed strong ride and he won the race by quite a big margin ahead of the rest of the field. Will he win another two races at Aragón? This is the question.
There are some other riders trying to chase and beat Acosta. David Alonso had good races last weekend and at the moment he is on the 2nd place overall. Iván Ortolá is third in the Championship standing and he also finished third during both races of last weekend. From some other names I should mention Daniel Holgado, David Muñoz, Daniel Muñoz (who share the same surname but they aren’t relatives), David Salvador, Izán Guevara, Zonta van den Goorbergh, Billy van Eerde, all these riders could be able to fight for the podium finish.
The schedule
Like last weekend, also this weekend there are cold morning temperatures expected so the time schedule for this weekend is a little bit different. Also, there is a clash with Formula 1 this weekend so because of this the time schedule for Sunday has been even more changed, so please, pay attention to it.
Friday 23rd October
- 10:00-10:40 Moto3 FP1
- 10:55-11:40 MotoGP FP1
- 11:55-12:35 Moto2 FP1
- 12:50-13:20 RBRC FP1
- 13:35-14:15 Moto3 FP2
- 14:30-15:15 MotoGP FP2
- 15:30-16:10 Moto2 FP2
- 16:25-16:55 RBRC FP2
- 17:55-18:20 RBRC QP
Saturday 24th October
- 10:00-10:40 Moto3 FP3
- 10:55-11:40 MotoGP FP3
- 11:55-12:35 Moto2 FP3
- 13:15-13:30 Moto3 Q1
- 13:40-13:55 Moto3 Q2
- 14:10-14:40 MotoGP FP4
- 14:50-15:05 MotoGP Q1
- 15:15-15:30 MotoGP Q2
- 15:50-16:05 Moto2 Q1
- 16:15-16:30 Moto2 Q2
- 17:10 RBRC Race 1 (15 laps)
Sunday 25th October
- 09:20-09:40 Moto3 WUP
- 09:50-10:10 MotoGP WUP
- 10:20-10:40 Moto2 WUP
- 11:20 Moto3 Race (19 laps)
- 13:00 MotoGP Race (23 laps)
- 14:30 Moto2 Race (21 laps)
- 15:50 RBRC Race 2 (15 laps)
Photo: MotoGP; Rookies Cup (Facebook page)
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