Aragon Motogp: An account
I watched the Aragon Motogp and here is how my trip went
A few months ago me and my dad decided to go to the Aragon Motogp in Spain as a sort of mini holiday and that weekend had arrived. We also decided we would drive there and we were taking my dads 1.0l TSI Skoda Fabia, I'll give my verdict later on how well suited I think it is/isn't for completing a round trip of around 2000 miles.
We left on Wednesday and decided we would have to sadly miss the practice day. The first leg of the journey was to Dover port so we could get the ferry across to Calais. Our Ferry was at 8 in the morning and we made sure to get a hot cooked breakfast on the ferry. The crossing took around 1 hour and 20 minutes.
It was goodbye to the white cliffs of Dover.
Tip: Be prepared for the tolls across France and Spain or you may be disappointed at how much you spend.
Once we got to Calais it was the second stint on our journey to Spain to our hotel in Poitiers which was about a 6 and a half hour drive that involved many peages. These are tolls situated on Frances 'A' roads which can range from 3 euros up to 37 which was the highest we saw. This is because they don't pay road tax in France so contribute through tolls instead.
We actually had to go onto the Paris peripherique which is a dual carriageway ring road across Paris, and if you thought the M25 was bad you'd be in for a shock. Partly due to the fact it's a dual carriageway and partly due to the fact they seem to drive quite erratically around Paris. We saw lots, and I mean LOTS of near misses.
After a few hours and many, many euros later we arrived at our hotel in Poitiers for the night. It was in an industrial area so we ate at Quick burger which I can only describe a slightly better McDonalds/ Burger King. After that it was a quick beer in the bar then off to bed.
We got up at 8 for breakfast and had left at 10 o clock for our third and final leg of the journey to Spain. This was around another 7 hours to our next hotel, luckily my dad did pretty much all of the driving. We had to cross through the Pyrenees mountain range which was stunning and I'll insert a picture of the mountains below.
Again, in Spain there are many tolls to pay, although you don't have to go on the motorway it was quicker and convenient for us to do so. Another bit of helpful advice though, they drive very quickly and frantically all over Spain. You'll pull out to overtake something and then suddenly every man and his dog are all over your backside wanting you to move over and crash into the lorry that's alongside you just so they can pass you. The place is basically a race track, even on single carriageways people are always overtaking in sketchy places. I can see why British roads are quite safe even though we have many idiots too.
Once we'd avoided crashing for a few hours and spent even more euros, we had arrived at our hotel in Spain. We just had dinner at the hotel this time.
The alarm went off at 7:30 on Saturday morning and after breakfast we left around 8:30 and got to the circuit for 10:00. The journey to the circuit was fantastic with loads of motorbikes on the way too and the scenery was just stunning, it was very wild west you could almost be in America.
The circuit itself is in the middle of all these hills/ mini mountains so it was a brilliant setting, the only disappointing thing was you couldn't walk around different parts of the circuit, you had to stay in the designated area where your seats were, meaning you felt imprisoned and things to do were limited so there isn't a lot I can say about it from that point of view. The track is 3 plus miles long so it is a good track that flows quite well.
The area where our grandstand was situated
Qualifying was very entertaining, in the early stages it seemed like Marquez was controlling qualifying but towards the end Dovizioso got provisional pole and then Jorge Lorenzo snatched it off of him by 0.014s, the crowd went pretty wild for that as Lorenzo is Spanish. Dovizioso qualified 2nd with Marquez and Crutchlow 3rd and 4th.
Race day had approached and we watched the support races which also had most people on the edge of their seat due to some brilliant racing, Moto 3 did have a clear winner in Jorge Martinez from the start however. Alex Marquez who is the brother of Marc Marquez started the Moto 2 race very well but capitulated near the end with Brad Binder winning that race.
Then we arrive at the big one, the race everyone came to watch and I could not spot one single empty seat in the stand we were sitting in. It was time for the Motogp. Straight away it provided entertainment as Lorenzo fell off his bike at turn 1 which was bittersweet for the Spanish crowd as Marquez went through to take first place from him and then Dovizioso passed Marquez for first place.
The start into the first corner
Crutchlow fell off his bike during the race which was quite gutting as he is the rider we were supporting. To be fair, the crowd were very respectful to each rider and clapping them if they fell off and once the race had finished. Marquez and Dovizioso traded places quite a bit pulling off crazy overtakes whilst showing great race craft under the sizzling Spanish sun.
It was Marquez who was to be victorious though with a huge roar erupting around the track from the crowd. Watching the bikes in real life you realize more than ever that these guys have big stones to be racing down the straight at almost 200 mph on two wheels!
Sadly it was time to start the journey home again and I got my first taste of what it is like to drive in mainland Europe. You soon adapt to driving on the other side of the road, you just have to be extra cautious when overtaking due to having a massive blind spot on your left side. So that was my little trip to Spain over, oh and the Fabia? It was a great stalwart for the journey and had all of the basics you need for a long journey. Bluetooth, air con, comfortable enough seats and good economy as well.
I would recommend you to go to a Motogp if you get the chance, not necessarily drive 2000 miles there and back, but the spectacle and the racing is really, really brilliant.
I'll leave a gallery of some random pictures and things I took along the journey.
EDIT: There seems to be a problem with the video being blurry, I think it's just studio processing it hopefully.
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