The 2023 MotoGP World Championship is an unstoppable swing. Every time it seems like you have found certainties, a few hours are enough and a turning point immediately arrives. And the Qatar weekend is no exception, which seemed to smile on Jorge Martin and instead ended with Pecco Bagnaia taking a decisive step forward towards a possible second world championship: if yesterday he saw his lead halved to just 7 points, today he tripled it, bringing it back to 21 lengths.
It was inevitable to start from this, but the hero of the night in Lusail is another and bears the name of Fabio Di Giannantonio. In defiance of those who don’t want to give him another chance in MotoGP next year, the Roman Gresini Racing rider won his first victory in the premier class at the end of a race as a true champion.
“Diggia”, in fact, was the only one capable of keeping up with the pace of a furious Bagnaia, who immediately took the lead of the group at the start and tried to set the race at an infernal pace, despite the fact that today he was almost given granted that tire management would be king.
Initially, in the leading group there were also the other two Ducatis of Luca Marini, one of the few to have risked the soft tire on the front, and of Alex Marquez, but also Brad Binder’s KTM. As the laps went by, however, this trio began to suffer a decline and only the reigning world champion and “Diggia” remained in contention for victory.
Some might even have thought that he would have been satisfied, given that a victory for Pecco would have practically sealed the title, but with four laps to go he broke through and took the lead. In the next passage, Bagnaia looked for the answer at turn 1 and ended up very long, narrowly avoiding contact and giving a huge thrill to both of them.
At that point, Di Giannantonio found himself alone and heading towards a victory that could perhaps still change the scenarios and guarantee him a saddle for next year. A saddle that in recent races has shown that he deserves it without a shadow of a doubt, even if perhaps he must remain regretful for the fact that this explosion arrived when the doors were almost all closed.
Despite the defeat, Bagnaia’s smile at parc fermé was well motivated. First of all because he finally returned to racing as a protagonist after a Saturday in the shade. And then because, almost by a sort of law of retaliation, this time it was his rival Martin who had to deal with a tire that probably didn’t behave as he would have hoped. Also because this, or a technical problem, seems to be the only explanation for such a sudden drop in performance compared to yesterday.
It was clear from the start that his race was uphill, because right from the start he lost many positions, with his Prima Pramac Racing Ducati skidding noticeably. Then the Madrilenian never found the rhythm and gradually lost positions, eventually finishing tenth. A result that makes the world championship dream very complicated for him now, because 21 points are starting to be a lot when in Valencia there will still be 37 up for grabs.
Completing a great Italian celebration was Luca Marini, who was rewarded by his courageous choice of the soft front tire by managing to distance himself from his two “traveling companions” in the second part of the race. At the end, however, he had to defend himself from the great return of the Aprilia of Maverick Vinales, definitely the fastest on the track in the last third of the race, who ultimately gave up in the sprint, only by 80 thousandths. However, a good sign for Aprilia, which like yesterday was the one that fought the most against the Ducatis.
This time things went better for KTM too, with Binder eventually managing to take home fifth place in the duel with Alex Marquez. But the Austrian manufacturer also managed to place Jack Miller in ninth place, behind Fabio Quartararo who made a good comeback with his Yamaha and also Enea Bastianini, who rose from the back of the group to eighth place.
After being the protagonist in the early stages, Marc Marquez had to deal with the usual decline of his Honda, settling for 11th place in the end. However, he did better than an overshadowed Marco Bezzecchi, who could not do better than the 13th place finish. Franco Morbidelli, however, is out of the points.
After trying to start despite the fractured fibula head suffered yesterday, Aleix Espargaro stopped after 6 laps because the pain was too much. If nothing else, in this way the Aprilia rider paid the six-place grid penalty for yesterday’s slap to Morbidelli. The other driver involved in the Sprint accident, the Portuguese Miguel Oliveira, did not even start due to a fracture of his right shoulder blade. Among other things, the Aprilia RNF rider was punished with a long lap penalty, which at this point he will most likely serve at the first race next year.
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