Complicated first laps for the eight-time world champion
Francesco Bagnaia dominated the Motegi weekend, winning both the Sprint and the GP. The two-time world champion had stood out in terms of race pace since the first free practice session. His main opponents with time in hand, namely Pedro Acosta and Jorge Martin, made a few too many mistakes to counter Bagnaia down to the last metre. Acosta seemed set on winning the Sprint, but crashed three laps from the end just as he was definitively clearing Bagnaia. The GasGas driver crashed again in the GP after a few laps when he was in second position behind Bagnaia.
Jorge Martin precluded himself from being in the match by crashing in Qualifying and started from the fourth row. The final second place at the end of the GP can already be considered a victory for the World Championship leader who was surgical in the early stages of the race to slalome between fierce opponents such as Enea Bastianini and Marc Marquez. This last Saturday saw a sensational pole position vanish by a matter of centimeters (and the non-functioning sensor led to the cancellation of the lap as it was now too late for the eight-time world champion to try a time attack again).
Marquez also had to start in the middle of the group, exposing himself to a recurring problem which is negatively characterizing the Gresini rider’s 2024: “The brakes are a nightmare for us – he declared to the microphones of DAZNa thesis also confirmed by crew chief Frankie Carchedi – in the first laps while I was fighting in the group, these brake problems recurred and it’s very difficult to manage a situation like this because at every braking point you never know what will happen. I had some overtaking because I couldn’t brake where I wanted. Only once I passed Binder did the temperature drop and the situation improved, allowing me to be consistent in braking. At that point, however, Bagnaia and Martin were already far away. On a stop&go circuit like Motegi, having a problem like this is very limiting because you have to be 3-4 tenths faster than the other rider to overtake it. If you go a tenth faster and you don’t have maximum confidence in the brakes, overtaking becomes impossible”. The brakes are not Marc Marquez’s only problem in 2024: even making full use of the soft tire in Qualifying is not ‘automatic’ for the eight-time world champion.
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