Jose Antonio Rueda benefited from a shrewd hard rear-tire choice to take the Moto3 victory by almost two seconds at Aragon.
The MotorLand surface was soaked by overnight storms but the summer temperatures in the day helped dry the track in time for racing to begin.
Championship leader and polesitter David Alonso had built up a two-second lead by the third lap but then had to slow down to preserve his Pirelli medium tyre in order to make the finish line.
Rueda put his harder compound to good use, passing the Colombian who would eventually finish fourth.
The performance gave the former Red Bull Rookies Cup and JuniorGP champion his first victory in 31 Moto3 starts, making him the 400th different rider to celebrate grand prix success.
His maiden win was also the first of the year for the Red Bull KTM Ajo crew and made him the 39th Spaniard to stand on the top step in the smaller cylinder category.
Collin Veijer was runner-up despite also selecting the medium tyre to pick up his sixth trophy of the season on the Husqvarna, the result vaulting him to sixth in the standings.
Luca Lunetta (SIC58 Squadra Corse) was third for his first career rostrum appearance after recovering from a recent wrist injury.
Joel Kelso finished fifth ahead of Taiyo Furusato, while rookie Xabi Zurutuza broke into the top 10 for the first time to finish eighth.
Two-time winner this season Ivan Ortola struggled, however, finishing a lowly 12th.
Moto 3 Aragon results
| 1 |
J. Antonio Red Bull KTM Factory Racing |
99 | KTM | 17 | 148.5 | 25 | ||||
| 2 |
C. Veijer Liqui Moly Husqvarna Intact GP |
95 | Husqvarna | 17 | 1.985 | 148.4 | 20 | |||
| 3 |
L. Lunetta SIC58 Squadra Corse |
58 | Honda | 17 | 1.571 | 148.2 | 16 | |||
| 4 |
D. Alonso CFMOTO Gaviota Aspar Team |
80 | CF MOTO | 17 | 1.386 | 148.1 | 13 | |||
| 5 |  J. Kelso BOE Motorsports |
66 | KTM | 17 | 3.561 | 147.9 | 11 | |||
| 6 |  T. Furusato Honda Team Asia |
72 | Honda | 17 | 5.125 | 147.5 | 10 | |||
| 7 |  D. Munoz BOE Motorsports |
64 | KTM | 17 | 3.334 | 147.3 | 9 | |||
| 8 |
X. Zurutuza Red Bull KTM Factory Racing |
85 | KTM | 17 | 0.067 | 147.3 | 8 | |||
| 9 | D. Holgado Red Bull GASGAS Tech3 |
96 | GASGAS | 17 | 0.136 | 147.3 | 7 | |||
| 10 |  M. Bertelle Kopron Rivacold Snipers Team |
18 | Honda | 17 | 0.413 | 147.3 | 6 | |||
| 11 |  A. Fernandez Leopard Racing |
31 | Honda | 17 | 1.448 | 147.2 | 5 | |||
| 12 |
I. Ortola MT Helmets — MSI |
48 | KTM | 17 | 1.396 | 147.1 | 4 | |||
| 13 | S. Nepa LEVELUP — MTA |
82 | KTM | 17 | 2.995 | 146.9 | 3 | |||
| 14 | T. Suzuki Liqui Moly Husqvarna Intact GP |
24 | Husqvarna | 17 | 0.115 | 146.8 | 2 | |||
| 15 |
J. Esteban CFMOTO Gaviota Aspar Team |
78 | CF MOTO | 17 | 0.062 | 146.8 | 1 | |||
| 16 |  S. Ogden Fibre Tec Honda — MLav Racing |
19 | Honda | 17 | 7.556 | 146.3 | ||||
| 17 |
N. Dettwiler CIP |
55 | KTM | 17 | 6.544 | 145.9 | ||||
| 18 |
D. Almansa Kopron Rivacold Snipers Team |
22 | Honda | 17 | 0.105 | 145.9 | ||||
| 19 | R. Yamanaka MT Helmets — MSI |
6 | KTM | 17 | 6.658 | 145.4 | ||||
| 20 | R. Rossi CIP |
54 | KTM | 17 | 7.077 | 144.9 | ||||
| 21 |
J. Roulstone Red Bull GASGAS Tech3 |
12 | GASGAS | 17 | 0.059 | 144.9 | ||||
| 22 |
F. Aditama Honda Team Asia |
93 | Honda | 17 | 3.989 | 144.7 | ||||
| dnf |
T. Buasri Honda Team Asia |
5 | Honda | 7 | 10 Laps | 145.5 | Retirement | |||
| dnf |
F. Farioli SIC58 Squadra Corse |
7 | Honda | 7 | 3.487 | 145.0 | Accident | |||
| dnf |
Á. Piqueras Leopard Racing |
36 | Honda | 6 | 1 Lap | 134.8 | Retirement |
Jose Antonio Rueda, Red Bull KTM Ajo
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
In Moto2, Jake Dixon triumphed for the second time this season.
The CFMOTO Aspar rider — who now sits fifth in the championship, 43 points down on leader Sergio Garcia — gunned away from pole and controlled the 19-lap race ahead of Tony Arbolino, who picked up a podium for the first time this season.
Dixon’s win continues a rich vein of form — the result is his fourth podium in a row after a succession of injury problems and set-up adjustments with the WP Suspension configuration meant that he did not appear on the podium until round six of the current calendar.
Behind Arbolino in third was Moto2 rookie Deniz Oncu, who only recently returned from a wrist injury. It was a career-best for Oncu, whose previous best was an 11th-place finish in Austria.
Spanish duo Alonso Lopez and Manuel Gonzalez filled fourth and fifth respectively as Somkiat Chantra, announced on Thursday as the first full-time Thai rider to enter MotoGP for 2025, took sixth.
Meanwhile, Garcia (MT Helmets – MSi) had a miserable weekend: a crash in qualifying leaving him in 29th place on the grid. A long lap penalty in the race for exceeding track limits put paid to a points-place finish and he would retire after 11 laps.
Austrian Grand Prix winner Celestino Vietti was punted off the track at Turn 16 by Joe Roberts when running in the top six, though recovered to 10th.
Roberts dropped to seventh despite being given a long lap penalty but then crashed on the last lap while trying to pass American Racing Team team-mate Marcos Ramirez.
The Spaniard led Ai Ogura across the line with the Japanese rider in eighth, a result which slices Garcia’s advantage in the championship to just 12 points.
