The 2023 MotoGP World Championship really seems destined to arrive in Valencia, because Jorge Martin doesn’t want to give up. Indeed, in Thailand he showed off perhaps the best race of his career to achieve his fourth victory of the season.
Yesterday he dominated in the Sprint, but today he knew that he would not be able to attack for all 27 laps of the Chang International Circuit, because at some point the rear tire would take its toll. But his management was truly amazing.
Once again starting well from pole position, the Prima Pramac Racing rider commanded a peloton for a good part of the race which gradually thinned out as the laps went by, with only Brad Binder and Pecco Bagnaia keeping pace with the Madrid native.
With 6 laps to go, the KTM rider gave the sensation of having something more and, after a couple of line crossings, he managed to take the lead of the trio. The South African, however, didn’t have enough to go away and Martin always remained threatening in his wake.
On the penultimate lap, in fact, he came out of the first corner very strong and then pulled off a big braking move at turn 3 to regain the lead. At the last corner of lap 26 Bagnaia then tried to play his cards, with a double attack on the outside which narrowly missed the mark, but which then forced him to move back into third position.
At this point “Martinator” was very good at closing every gap to Binder in the final round, taking a well-deserved success, which is worth his fourth double of the season after those at Sachsenring, Misano and Motegi.
Under the checkered flag, Binder was second, but then the representative of the Austrian manufacturer put his wheels on green on the last lap and was therefore dropped one position back. Among other things, it is the third time this season that this has happened to Brad, who however gave Bagnaia a nice gift, because the 4 points more than the second place could have an impact at the end of the World Championship.
Even today the World Championship leader gave the sensation of having paid a little too much for his starting position, because being in the small group it took him a little longer than the leading tandem to find the right rhythm, after having also been the protagonist of a very “male” duel with Marc Marquez. This weekend too, however, he confirmed that he must focus on long races if he wants to maintain the 13 points he has over his rival.
At the foot of the podium is Marco Bezzecchi, who came out at a distance after a not particularly brilliant start. In the second part of the race, the Mooney VR46 driver also had a great duel with his teammate Luca Marini, who, however, seemed to have suffered a sudden tire decline towards the end and fell to eighth place.
Completing the top 5 is Aleix Espargaro’s Aprilia, which had even threatened Martin’s leadership in the early stages of the race. For the Noale manufacturer, however, it is a result not to be thrown away on a track that on paper should not have been at all favorable to the RS-GP.
Behind him, a great battle for supremacy took place between the Japanese brands, which had Fabio Quartararo and Marc Marquez as protagonists. In 2019 here they were playing for the victory until the last lap, while this time there was only sixth place up for grabs, achieved in the end by the Yamaha standard bearer. This says a lot about the moment of Japanese brands.
The other Italian drivers also finished in the points, with Fabio Di Giannantonio ninth, Franco Morbidelli 11th and Enea Bastianini 13th. It’s a shame for Alex Marquez, however, who was the only one to risk the medium tire on the rear (the others were all on the hard) and managed to stay with the leading group for 13 laps, at least until his Ducati of Gresini Racing didn’t send him flying.
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