MotoGP

Martin completes Misano MotoGP sweep, Bagnaia a heroic third

by Valentin Khorounzhiy
5 min read

Jorge Martin led a Ducati MotoGP podium lockout in the San Marino Grand Prix at Misano, as injured points leader Pecco Bagnaia salvaged third place.

Martin completed his second sprint/GP double of the season, but Bagnaia’s damage limitation weekend after his terrifying Catalan Grand Prix crash still keeps him 36 points ahead.

‘I saw a KTM go through my legs’ – Bagnaia relives horror crash
Read more

The early-race Ducati 1-2-3 had been briefly threatened off the start as Dani Pedrosa had a traditionally great KTM launch, before a slide coming out of Turn 1 allowed Marco Bezzecchi to immediately reclaim third place from him.

The VR46 man was thus part of the early Ducati breakaway behind leader Martin and Bagnaia, as the Spaniard soaked up pressure from the championship leader.

On the sixth lap, Bezzecchi launched one down the inside of Bagnaia – running a special yellow livery rather than the more familiar red – at Quercia, getting the move done only to immediately surrender the place again by running wide at Tramonto.

In the meantime, however, Martin was not breaking away despite the injuries of his Ducati pursuers – but soon after the 27-lap race passed its halfway point he began to up the pace, with Bagnaia, nursing a leg hematoma after his Barcelona scare, suddenly looking in strife.

On lap 19, Bezzecchi – who has been dealing with a pained hand, also from a Barcelona crash – produced another Quercia overtake and made it count this time, albeit with Martin now over two seconds clear.

Bezzecchi closed to 1.350s away at the chequered flag and moved to 65 points off Bagnaia, in an exact repeat of the sprint podium.

And once again, Bagnaia had to fight off Pedrosa late on.

The KTM threat to Ducati’s supremacy had materialised in the early going as Martin was managing the pace out front.

First, it was Brad Binder closing in, the South African having immediately cleared Maverick Vinales – something he wowed to do after being stuck behind Vinales for a handful of laps in Saturday’s sprint.

But Binder – who had also overtaken Pedrosa – then had a slow crash at Curva del Carro on lap eight, and it was the 37-year-old wildcard instead who started to bear down on the Ducati trio.

But Pedrosa could only make limited inroads and, though the increasingly struggling Bagnaia dropped towards him in the end, the Spaniard never looked close enough to go for a move.

Vinales rode a relatively lonely race in fifth, albeit briefly under pressure from Honda’s Marc Marquez – who, along with his two other Honda riders in the race and nobody else, was running the soft rear tyre than the medium.

This worked out nicely for Marquez even if the tyre seemed to predictably lose performance in the end, as he got overtaken by RNF Aprilia’s Miguel Oliveira for sixth place into Quercia, then fought hard to keep seventh from the likes of Raul Fernandez (RNF Aprilia) and Luca Marini (VR46 Ducati).

That seventh place is Marquez’s best Sunday finish of the season, and Honda’s best since its remarkable outlier Circuit of the Americas win with the currently-injured Alex Rins.

Fernandez had the best race of his MotoGP career so far in eighth, with Marini having overtaken him but then dropping behind after fighting Marquez on the final lap.

Johann Zarco (Pramac Ducati) overtook Alex Marquez (Gresini Ducati) for 10th on the final lap. Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia) and Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) finished right behind them.

Binder remounted after his crash to finish 14th, while Franco Morbidelli (Yamaha) completed the points, his successful defence against Tech3 Gas Gas rookie Augusto Fernandez meaning the latter’s streak of scoring in every Sunday race since his debut is now over.

The second-best Honda in the race was test rider Stefan Bradl’s 2024 prototype chassis, taking 18th place 22 seconds behind Marc Marquez but finishing eight seconds ahead of LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami in last place.

While Binder had remounted after his crash, team-mate Jack Miller was out of the race on the spot on the 10th lap after a collision with Ducati tester Michele Pirro while running 14th – that collision also massively hampering Fabio Di Giannantonio.

There were also crashes for Joan Mir (Honda) and Pol Espargaro (Tech3 Gas Gas).

Race Results

Pos Name Team Bike Laps Laps Led Total Time Fastest Lap Pitstops Pts
1 Jorge Martin Prima Pramac Racing Ducati 27 27 41m33.421s 1m31.867s 0 37
2 Marco Bezzecchi Mooney VR46 Racing Team Ducati 27 0 +1.35s 1m31.839s 0 29
3 Francesco Bagnaia Ducati Lenovo Team Ducati 27 0 +3.812s 1m31.791s 0 23
4 Dani Pedrosa Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM 27 0 +4.481s 1m31.876s 0 19
5 Maverick Viñales Aprilia Racing Aprilia 27 0 +10.51s 1m32.166s 0 15
6 Miguel Oliveira CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP Team Aprilia 27 0 +12.274s 1m32.227s 0 10
7 Marc Marquez Repsol Honda Team Honda 27 0 +13.576s 1m32.166s 0 9
8 Raul Fernandez CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP Team Aprilia 27 0 +14.091s 1m32.176s 0 8
9 Luca Marini Mooney VR46 Racing Team Ducati 27 0 +14.982s 1m31.976s 0 10
10 Johann Zarco Prima Pramac Racing Ducati 27 0 +15.484s 1m32.083s 0 6
11 Alex Marquez Gresini Racing MotoGP Ducati 27 0 +15.702s 1m32.221s 0 6
12 Aleix Espargaró Aprilia Racing Aprilia 27 0 +15.878s 1m32.134s 0 6
13 Fabio Quartararo Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 27 0 +15.898s 1m32.197s 0 3
14 Brad Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM 27 0 +23.778s 1m32.015s 0 7
15 Franco Morbidelli Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 27 0 +24.579s 1m32.379s 0 1
16 Augusto Fernandez GASGAS Factory Racing Tech3 KTM 27 0 +31.23s 1m32.179s 0 0
17 Fabio Di Giannantonio Gresini Racing MotoGP Ducati 27 0 +32.537s 1m32.494s 0 0
18 Stefan Bradl HRC Team Honda 27 0 +35.33s 1m32.794s 0 0
19 Takaaki Nakagami LCR Honda IDEMITSU Honda 27 0 +43.601s 1m32.896s 0 0
Pol Espargaró GASGAS Factory Racing Tech3 KTM 15 0 DNF 1m32.672s 0 0
Joan Mir Repsol Honda Team Honda 10 0 DNF 1m33.029s 0 0
Michele Pirro Aruba.it Racing Ducati 9 0 DNF 1m32.753s 0 0
Jack Miller Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM 9 0 DNF 1m32.754s 0 0
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Email
  • More Networks