History at Aragon, as Jose Antonio Rueda made his debut as a GP winner and became the 400th different winner in the MotoGP World Championship! The rider had a fantastic end to the race, on a day when David Alonso dropped from first to fourth place in the space of two laps. Collin Veier was second and Luca Lunetta made his podium debut!
All the riders started the race on slicks, as the track wasn’t completely dry and there were some wet sections. We should also remember the two front rows, with David Alonso taking pole position, followed by Jose Antonio Rueda and David Muñoz on the front row, with the second row made up of Angel Piqueras, Joel Kelso and Luca Lunetta.
Alonso got off to a good start and stayed in front, with Dani Holgado moving into the top three in the early stages behind Piqueras. At the start of the second lap Kelso moved into second place, but in two laps Adrián Fernández had the Spaniard up to third and then second, gaining 15 places (yes, you read that right).
The pole-sitter remained in the lead relatively comfortably for the time being, 1.8s ahead of Fernández, at a stage when Rueda was soon back in third place, “only” to be beaten by Taiyo Furusato.
The lap times were starting to improve and Alonso’s lead was also growing, by three tenths. Furusato then moved into second place ahead of Rueda, who had just overtaken Fernández.
Piqueras was the first to crash – at turn 9 – he who had been one of the highlights of the race, apparently not seriously. Soon after, Collin Veijer climbed to third place.
With 12 laps to go, Alongo’s lead was falling: in the space of two laps it had gone from 2.1s to 1.2s. Furusato was running roughly half a second faster than the race leader at this stage.
The #80 responded shortly afterwards and regained time and a 2s lead, and now on his new pursuer and the author of the fastest lap so far: Veijer. Lunetta, meanwhile, was also in the lead, in third.
Coming from behind was Rueda, now third once again in this race but 1.7s behind Veijer. The Dutchman was once again very close to leader Alonso and an attack on the lead was expected at any moment with six laps to go.
Indeed, the overtake was successful:
WHO EXPECTED THIS? 🤯@CollinVeijer95 leads and suddenly Alonso has to find something to respond! 😮#AragonGP 🏁 pic.twitter.com/gRZybyXPp1
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) September 1, 2024
And after Veijer took the lead, the race had another new leader, with Rueda moving to the front of the race!
And Alonso’s problems didn’t stop there, as Rueda was now dangerously close to the pole position winner! Rueda would also overtake and Lunetta was on the lookout for him to beat his opponent.
The “disaster” was confirmed for Alonso, who went from first to fourth in the space of just over two laps.
One lap from the end Rueda had the win in hand, and was leading by 1.065s over Veijer, with the latter quickly growing by 0.3s to almost 1.5s.
The race ended shortly afterwards with Rueda confirming his debut as a GP winner! Lunetta also tasted success with his first podium as he took third behind Veijer.
Rueda was the 400th rider to win a GP in history!