Unbelievable MotoGP race: four riders failed to finish the San Marino VC, the victory was fought until the last moment!

Now that was a sight! The MotoGP Royal Cubature had its fourteenth race of the season, the San Marino Grand Prix, on Sunday 4 September. It was dominated by Francesco Bagnaia and with his victory he rewrote the history of the factory Ducati. Four riders did not finish the race.

The Gran Premio Gryfyn di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini, as the official name of the San Marino MotoGP Grand Prix is, was started by Jack Miller on a Ducati after a great qualifying session from pole position. He was then joined on the front row by Enea Bastianini, who will replace the Australian Miller in the factory Ducati next season.

Third place on the grid after qualifying was claimed by Marco Bezzecchi, who currently defends the colours of the Mooney VR46 Racing Team. You can see how the entire San Marino Grand Prix starting grid looked in the attached Twitter post below.

Dramatic start

After all the lights went out, fans witnessed a mass crash at the first corner involving Pol Espargaro, Johann Zarco and Michele Pirro. Miller held the lead after the start, only to crash in turn 4 on the second lap and drop to last place.

Francesco Bagnaia then made a great start and moved up to third. Bezzecchi also crashed on the second lap. The 23-year-old Rimini native was unable to hold his bike in turn 10, but was able to continue the race.

The third lap brought some interesting battles on the track. Italian Bagnaia took the top spot, while Bastianini could not hold on to second place ahead of Maverick Viñales.

But apart from the attractive race, we also saw more crashes on the third lap, when Franco Morbidelli and Fabio Di Giannantonio collided in turn four. The latter was able to continue in the San Marino Grand Prix.

Alex Márquez also had a great performance in the opening laps, having started from 16th place and having worked his way up to ninth after seven laps.

Bagnaia, Viñales, Bastianini, Marini, Quartararo, Aleix Espargaro, Martin, Rins, Alex Márquez and Oliveira – that’s how the elite ten standings looked after ten laps of the San Marino Grand Prix.

A great battle between several drivers

Bagnaio, however, was unable to escape his pursuers, and the fans watched four riders battle for the top spot.

Over the next few laps, the top four worked out a one-second advantage over fifth-placed Fabio Quartara. The reigning world champion in turn chased the leading four with a safe 2.2-second lead over sixth-placed Aleix Espargar.

Meanwhile, Alex Márquez dropped out of the elite ten, overtaken by Brad Binder on KTM. After 17 laps, the standings were as follows: Bagnaia, Viñales, Bastianini, Marini, Quartararo, Espargaro, Rins, Martin, Binder, Oliveira.

On lap 20 Luca Marini lost pace significantly and, apparently due to some technical problem, the leading four drivers dropped out of the fight. In spite of this, his lead over fifth-placed Quartararo was less than two seconds.

Sixth-placed Espargaro, in the service of the factory Aprilia, gradually closed the gap to the Frenchman Quartara to 1.5 seconds. Meanwhile, South African Binder moved ahead of Jorge Martin into eighth place.

A superb finish

The battle for the win was not lost on Viñales, who gradually lost contact with race leaders Bagnaia and Bastianini in the final laps, their lead was less than three seconds. With three laps to go, Quartararo had closed the gap to Marini to less than four tenths of a second.

In the last lap, Bagnaia and Bastianini went head-to-head for the win, and the fans witnessed an incredible finish!

Bastianini, nicknamed “El Bestia”, literally shot out of the last corner and attacked leader Bagnaia on the home straight, albeit unsuccessfully. However, the Italian Ducati rider won by just 34 thousandths of a second!

Bagnaia thus won for the fourth time in a row and rewrites the history of the Ducati racing team. The team has never won four races in a row in its history. Bagnaia has also reduced the lead of championship leader Quartara to 30 points and the battle for the championship will be very exciting.

You can also see the final standings of the elite ten in the above attached twitter post, which Alex Márquez successfully fought his way back into.

Source: MotoGP