This time Jorge Martin wasn’t satisfied with the Sprint and at Le Mans he also showed off a great performance in the long race on Sunday, taking his second victory of the season, the eighth overall in MotoGP. A very heavy success not only for his symbolic value, but also from a World Championship perspective and for his race for the official Ducati, given that the opponents he defeated were Marc Marquez and Pecco Bagnaia.
At the start, in fact, it was the reigning world champion who took command of the operations, putting yesterday’s terrible start behind him and showing off a sensational one this time. The Piedmontese took the lead of the group with “Martinator” in his tail. And the two immediately began to dig a small furrow on a second group that included the two Aprilias of Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Vinales, but also the three Ducatis of Fabio Di Giannantonio, Enea Bastianini and a Marc Marquez once again protagonist of a start spectacular from the fifth row.
Bagnaia led the race for 15 laps, but Martin never gave him a single centimeter, always remaining glued to the tail of his Desmosedici GP, while the others had slowly distanced themselves, accumulating a gap of around two seconds. With 8 laps to go, the Madrilenian broke through and led the attack to turn 3. For his part, however, Pecco was very good at crossing and getting back in front on the descent leading to turn 6.
A lap later however he could do nothing when Martin tried again, this time denying him the chance to cross and taking the lead. The skirmishes between these two, however, also allowed Marc Marquez to make up for it, who taking advantage of the battle closed a gap of just under two seconds to also enter the fight for the victory.
A battle that was more about nerves than anything else, with Martin only having a small thrill on the penultimate lap, when he went wide of the line at the 3-4 chicane and Bagnaia immediately tried to take advantage of it, but without success. And here perhaps there was the mistake of the Italian rider, who concentrated above all on looking for a gap to pass Martin and in this way gave Marquez the space to slip into the braking section of Turn 9 on the last lap.
A spectacular overtaking, which started from afar, which also allowed Martin to gain a few meters of advantage, to arrive at the finish line with a bit of calm right in front of Marquez and Bagnaia. In the World Championship therefore the Prima Pramac Racing rider now has a 38 point margin over Pecco and 40 over Marc, and the certainty of arriving at least at Mugello as leader.
At the foot of the podium there is an Enea Bastianini who perhaps must be eating his hands a little, because he finished just over two seconds behind the winner despite having served a long lap penalty due to braking too much at the limit at turn 9 with Aleix Espargaro, who had sent the Aprilia rider into the escape route. A shame, because in the final part of the race he was the fastest on the track and now he too is at -40.
The top 5 is completed by a Maverick Vinales who, like yesterday, was not particularly brilliant, but still there, who also took advantage of a long lap penalty inflicted on Fabio Di Giannantonio for cutting the chicane. And the Pertamina Enduro VR46 rider also deserved better luck, given that he was also third for a good part of the race.
For once, Pedro Acosta was not part of the party, as he crashed almost immediately, after just a couple of laps, when he was fighting for the podium positions. And it’s also sad for Fabio Quartararo, who with his celebratory livery had even brought Yamaha to sixth place until two-thirds of the way through the race, but then he too ended up spinning. Then Marco Bezzecchi also ended up on the ground in the early stages, ending the weekend with a double zero.
Going back to scrolling through the rankings, Franco Morbidelli’s seventh place overall is good, with his Ducati ahead of the first of the KTMs, that of Brad Binder, with the South African being the protagonist of a good comeback from the back of the group . After a good start, Aleix Espargaro lost pace and finished ninth ahead of Alex Marquez.
Local idol Johann Zarco also took home a few points, 12th and first among the Honda riders. 15th then there is Alex Rins’ Yamaha, which once again keeps Luca Marini out of the points, still stuck at zero after five rounds.
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