What is there to say? At the track where Marc Marquez ended his over-1,000-day winning drought last year, the six-time world champion looked untouchable.

After taking pole position by nearly three-tenths of a second, the Saturday sprint delivered the only problem for the 32-year-old as Marc slipped back due to excessive wheelspin.

With his pace advantage, it hardly mattered. The factory Ducati rider worked his way back up through the field, coolly picking off the other riders one by one before taking the lead back from Alex Marquez. The red bike took the flag in first, to nobody’s surprise.

The main race was even less dramatic with Marc leading from lights to flag. It appeared at the beginning that younger brother Alex could be in a position to attack, but it soon became evident that Marc was just pacing himself, looking after his tyres. Frankly, the other riders could have gone home after qualifying, the winner was already decided.

Johann Zarco, Team LCR Honda

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Oh, what a difference a couple of weeks makes. After the highs of Johann Zarco’s Le Mans victory and Silverstone podium came the rude awakening of Aragon.

Qualifying was unspectacular as the Frenchman finished the session in 12th and the sprint race saw an unremarkable run to 16th, off the pace. After the sprint, Zarco told the media that the bike performance “doesn’t make sense” as the vibration problems during cornering returned, an issue that had been believed to be previously eradicated.

The race itself was similarly forgetful, an average run in the midfield coming to an end when Zarco slid out of contention. In fairness, all the Honda bikes indeed struggled but Zarco appeared to bear the brunt of it. A weekend to forget.

Winner: KTM

Maverick Vinales, Red Bull KTM Tech 3

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KTM currently occupies third place in the constructors’ standings, which continues to be a surprise. It has to be remembered that the Austrian manufacturer is the only one not to finish on the podium so far this season.

Going into the weekend, the riders were not feeling optimistic even though the track surface of the Motorland circuit was predicted to mask the deficiencies of the KTM bike under turn-in conditions as well as its inherent traction issues.

Friday’s practice appeared to confirm the theory, with KTM managing to put three riders into Q2 straight away at the end of the official practice session. Q2 went better still with Acosta and Binder lining up fourth and fifth on the grid with the factory bikes, while Maverick Vinales was seventh on the Tech3 KTM. Admittedly, Acosta was six tenths back from Marc on pole, but given that the KTMs always display better race pace than qualifying speed, it wasn’t a massive concern.

At least the sprint went well for Acosta, very nearly slotting into third after the older Marquez brother slipped back following his poor start. Eventually, the Spaniard finished fifth after losing out to Fermin Aldeguer’s Ducati who was on his way to third. While Binder had a mediocre race to finish ninth after dropping back off the line, Vinales secured seventh at the finish. It seemed that the KTM’s strength was particularly apparent under braking, an important factor at the Aragon circuit where braking composes almost 30% of the lap.

So has KTM made a step forward this weekend? No. Probably not. In truth, the rather unique track played itself to KTM’s advantage during Aragon weekend but the boys and girls in orange need to take the good days whenever they come.

Loser: Yamaha

Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha Factory Racing

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Yikes. Anyone watching the Friday practice session had their heart in their mouth as they watched Fabio Quartararo try to tame the bucking bronco that was his YZR-M1 machine. It appeared that the bike was only interested in throwing its rider off as the blue machine jumped and hopped on every corner exit.

Some electronic modifications were found to improve the situation for both qualifying and the sprint race, but the results were mediocre at best. In the sprint, the 2021 champion could only finish 11th while in the race he went down, battling to stay within the top 10.

It should be noted none of Yamaha’s riders could do any better and all complained about the same issues as Quartararo. Alex Rins was the best-placed Yamaha rider in the main race, finishing 11th, but it was practically academic.

Quartararo said he wanted to “forget everything” from the Aragon Grand Prix, and who can blame him? The Yamaha personnel will certainly be trying to do the same.

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team

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Calling Francesco Bagnaia a ‘winner’ after only coming away with third in the feature race may be odd but there is reason to believe that major psychological disaster was everted.

Across both Friday and Saturday, Bagnaia looked like an also-ran. The double MotoGP champion lacked any sort of confidence on the bike. A particular issue was his confidence under braking, severe locking taking away any possibility of putting in a quick lap.

His fourth on the grid was taken after excessive risk-taking, and in the sprint itself he slipped back through the field and out of the points.

For Sunday a change was carried. Significantly bigger brake discs were mounted with a 15mm increase in diameter being fitted. This transformed Bagnaia’s performance, and the Italian was able to complete the podium. This no doubt will prove a big confidence boost. Without it, ‘Pecco’ would have left Aragon with his tail firmly between his legs.

Marco Bezzecchi, Aprilia Racing

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Faces were glum in Aprlilla garage as Marco Bezzecchi see-sawed his way up and down the grid this weekend. The Silverstone winner was in high spirits going into the weekend, but the meeting proved to be disastrous.

He said he wasn’t “completely happy” following the weekend and that was hardly surprising. The pressure might be getting to the man, who is annoyed with the burden of being solely responsible with the development of Aprilia’s RS-GP25 machine.

Going down in Turn 3 on his first timed lap in Q1, the Italian only got one lap, which put his Aprilia in 20th on the grid. He managed to make a decent recovery in both sprint and the main race, finishing both in eighth place, but you couldn’t help but wonder if it shouldn’t have been something more. Bezzecchi will try to put this one behind him as quickly as possible.