There is little to do, Phillip Island always offers exciting races, which cannot be considered finished until the checkered flag is waved. Prima Pramac Racing is celebrating in the Australian Grand Prix, brought forward to Saturday due to fears linked to bad weather on Sunday, but not with the bike that everyone would have expected: in fact the first one, awaited for a very long time, has arrived, Johann Zarco’s MotoGP success.
A race that was literally dominated by teammate Jorge Martin, who took the risk of fitting the soft tire on the rear. A gamble that he would have paid for if the race had lasted just one day less, but which in the end led him to actually see his gap towards Pecco Bagnaia grow.
The Madrilenian started off from pole position and immediately set the race at an infernal pace, even accumulating a margin of over three seconds against the group of pursuers, which included Brad Binder’s KTM and the Ducatis of an extraordinary Fabio Di Giannantonio in addition to that of Bagnaia.
As the laps went by, “Martinator” seemed able to manage the margin, always keeping it above two seconds, while in the group of chasers Zarco also fell behind.
The turning point came right at the end, because in the last three laps Martin’s rear tire didn’t want to know anymore and it was quite evident with the “commas” he made when exiting the corners. That was a great stimulus for the pursuers, who went to catch him led by precisely those whom no one would have expected, his partner Zarco.
The connection occurred on the last lap, with the Frenchman finding the right gap at the braking point of turn 4. An attack that ended up taking the Spaniard wide, allowing Bagnaia to also take advantage of it. Another couple of corners and Di Giannantonio also had his chance to get in, followed closely by Binder.
In the end, therefore, the Frenchman’s first MotoGP victory arrived, and he celebrated it with the famous backflip that we hadn’t seen him do since his Moto2 days. A truly sweet way to say goodbye to Ducati at the end of a beautiful four-year adventure, before moving on to defend the colors of Honda LCR in 2024.
Behind him, however, today’s second place is almost worth a victory for Bagnaia, because it wasn’t his best race, but he was good at not losing his composure and capitalizing, also because in the end Martin fell to fifth place, paying a very high price for the gamble of the soft, and this allowed him to widen the gap in the championship to 27 points. A nice turning point for a Saturday that started with having to face Q1.
The Phillip Island race was generally one of the first times because the first podium in the premier class also arrived for Fabio Di Giannantonio, author of a truly memorable race, always in the group of the best. The Gresini Racing rider from Rome is now proving that he deserves a place in MotoGP. It’s just a shame that he did it now that his chances of remaining on the grid are really slim.
If the big disappointment is undoubtedly Martin, Binder certainly cannot be happy, who in the end finds himself at the foot of the podium with his KTM after having been second for a good part of the race. It is also true, however, that the South African is the only one not to ride a Ducati in the top six positions. Indeed, it is the first time that the Borgo Panigale manufacturer has managed to place a hat-trick on the podium at Phillip Island.
Captaining the second group was Marco Bezzecchi, who managed to move up towards the end with the Mooney VR46’s Desmosedici GP, ahead of Jack Miller’s KTM and Aleix Espargaro’s Aprilia. The top 10 is then completed with the other two Ducatis of the returning Alex Marquez and Enea Bastianini, from whom we certainly expected a little more after the step forward shown in Mandalika.
Points also for Luca Marini, 12th in a comeback behind Maverick Vinales’ Aprilia, while it was another day of passion for the Japanese manufacturers. You have to go down to 14th place to find the Yamaha of Fabio Quartararo who never found the right pace and was the protagonist of an anonymous day. Marc Marquez tried harder, who in the early stages was in the leading group, but he also risked the soft on the rear like Martin and in the second part of the race he actually fell to 15th place.
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