Franco Morbidelli fought his way past Takaaki Nakagami (Idemitsu Honda Team Asia) to hone in on Garage Plus Interwetten’s Tom Luthi, as the Italian-Brazilian lit up the timesheet to pass the Swiss veteran and then set his sights on teammate Marquez – catching him but unable to make it stick, with the EG0,0 Marc VDS garage suffering some late race stress as the teammates dueled it out around the final corner. Morbidelli was also fastest in Warm Up on Sunday morning and shot through the field after a slightly more difficult qualifying.

Luthi completed the top five in front of Nakagami, with the two having more lonely rides to the line as battle raged behind, with Alex Rins (Paginas Amarillas HP 40) emerging top from a four way fight with Lorenzo Baldassarri (Forward Racing), Johann Zarco (Ajo Motorsport) and Simone Corsi (Speed Up Racing). Zarco, who was down in tenth at one point, had a tough race in Aragon but just retains the lead in the title – with the gap now cut to an incredible, single point. The Frenchman has seen Rins rolling with some serious momentum of late, and also had a tough race at MotorLand in 2015 – when on the verge of the title. Jonas Folger (Dynavolt Intact GP) completed the top ten behind Corsi after a more difficult weekend for the German, with the upper echelons of the Moto2™ title fight shuffling every weekend.

Next stop: Japan and the Twin Ring Motegi, with one single point the difference at the top.