The Repsol Honda Team is back to full strength as Marc Marquez rejoins Pol Espargaro as the pair aim to ready for the last big push of the 2022 season.
Just six races of the 2022 MotoGP World Championship remain and with five of those races coming in the next six weeks, the most intense period of the year has arrived. The Aragon GP kicks off this run of races, the Spanish circuit a happy hunting ground for the Repsol Honda Team in the past. Casey Stoner won the first race for Honda there in 2011 with Dani Pedrosa and Marc Marquez continuing the run in 2012 and 2013. In total, Honda have taken seven premier class wins in Aragon.
The focus of the weekend will not be chasing a seventh win for Marc Marquez, the eight-time World Champion making his return to MotoGP after a fourth surgery on his right arm. Instead, the focus will be on working for the future, aiming to improve his fitness and to continue developing the Honda RC213V. A positive test in Misano and his subsequent recovery demonstrated to Marquez and the Repsol Honda Team that it is time to begin the next stage of his recovery.
An equally successful test after the San Marino GP has Pol Espargaro motivated for the end of the year. The first objective of the weekend in Aragon will be confirming the learnings from the test, the #44 aiming to make gains especially during Saturday’s time attack. Aragon has been the scene of consistent point scoring for Espargaro in the premier class with a best result of fourth coming in 2020.
Aragon marks the start of a triple header, the entire MotoGP paddock heading directly to Motegi for the Japanese GP after the race.