• Enea Bastianini (Gresini Racing MotoGP) wins in Aragón
• New lap record of 1min46 for Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team)
• Luca Marini (Mooney VR46 Racing Team) breaks the race lap record in 1min47s795
• New record for race duration in 41min35s462
• New speed record with 354,1 km/h established by Enea Bastianini
With her MICHELIN Power Slicks tires, Enea Bastianini won the 15e round of the 2022 MotoGP™ World Championship, the Gran Premio Animoca Brands de Aragón, under the Spanish sun. Francesco Bagnaia and Aleix Espargaró (Aprilia Racing) finished second and third respectively in this Grand Prix.
Thanks to good weather all weekend, the drivers had time to work on the settings and test all the MICHELIN Power Slicks in their allocation. For the race, the track conditions prompted all drivers to choose the Hard front and the Medium rear. This choice worked perfectly, as evidenced by the new race duration record established in 41min35s462.
As is often the case at Motorland Aragón, the times at the start of the weekend were affected by the dust on the circuit deposited by the wind which sweeps this arid plateau, as well as by a "green" track which improved over the sessions. .
The drivers were able to observe this low grip compared to Misano during Free Practice 1 (FP1) with a best time of only 1min48s686. But the conditions began to improve for Free Practice 2 (FP2), with less dust and a more “gum” track. The drivers continued the laps with the MICHELIN Power Slicks Hard front and Medium rear before switching to the Soft rear to attack at the end of the session. Jorge Martin (Prima Pramac Racing) set the best lap in 1min47.
On Saturday, the wind blew stronger than the day before and it was an additional challenge for the drivers. In Free Practice 3 (FP3), most of the drivers started with MICHELIN Power Slicks Medium front and rear, before putting on the Soft rear in order to access Qualification 2 (Q2). The times flirted with 1min46s and Jack Miller (Ducati Lenovo Team) achieved 1min46s992. In this same session, Enea Bastianini broke the circuit speed record with 354,1 km/h on the handlebars of her Ducati GP22.
In Q2, as usual, the drivers attacked again and again to secure the best possible place on the starting grid. Francesco Bagnaia took pole position by beating the circuit record in 1min46. Ducati monopolized the first starting line.
At the end of the Grand Prix, Piero Taramasso, Michelin Motorsport Two-Wheel Manager, commented: “ Here in Aragón, the level of grip offered by the asphalt resurfaced in 2009 is perhaps the weakest on the calendar. Over the course of the weekend, the times generally improve by a second with each running session, and this was again the case this year. From a tire point of view, one of the important elements to take into consideration is that our 2022 rear tire allocation has evolved compared to 2021 based on the data collected and driver feedback, with a new Soft option. This new rear Soft allowed three drivers to beat the lap record during Q2. »
« The pace was very fast all weekend despite difficult track conditions. I am very happy to see the improvement in performance compared to last year with the lap, race lap, race duration and maximum speed records broken this weekend. In addition, the consistency of the tires was underlined by the fact that the leading drivers lapped in a “small” 1min48s at the end of the event. »
