Bagnaia takes home MotoGP sprint triumph, riding error relegates World Championship leader Martín to second place

Francesco “Pecco” Bagnaia dominated the sprint at the VC Emilia Romagna MotoGP at the Misano circuit in front of his home fans. After a mistake in the middle of the race, he was handed the victory by Jorge Martín, who had to settle for second place. Enea Bastianini earned a place on the small podium ahead of the winner of the last grand prix at Misano, Marc Márquez.

This year’s World Championship of Road Motorcycles series remained in the place of the previous Grand Prix for its fourteenth continuation. The Misano circuit in Italy will host MotoGP races for the second consecutive year, due to the previously postponed VC of India and the cancelled VC of Kazakhstan.

The Emilia Romagna Grand Prix returns to the calendar this weekend for the third time in the championship’s history. This official title can best be linked to the unexpected difficulties of race planning during the metalliferous pandemic, when it was often necessary to hold two races on one track.

Like two weeks ago, reigning world champion Pecco Bagnaia dominated qualifying in Misano. A member of the VR46 academy, whose riders know this track like the back of their hand, he pushed his fastest time of Saturday morning by almost three tenths of a second to 1:30.013 compared to last time.

Despite this feat, Bagnaiu was not expecting an easy sprint. His closest pursuer in the title fight, Jorge Martín, qualified right next to him. Third-placed Enea Bastianini had already lost more than half a second to his teammate Bagnaiu.

Bagnaia loses pole position advantage again, Martín controls the pace

Although Bagnaia had sprinted from pole position two weeks ago, a rocket start by Martín from the second row put him behind the World Championship leader, whom he was unable to overtake until the end of the short race. And even in the case of this weekend, Bagnaia didn’t lead into the first corner.

Martín made quick work of the Italian after the lights went out. Adding to the Spaniard’s joy was Brad Binder, who stormed into the opening section of the circuit ahead of the factory Ducati rider in second position.

An uninvited visitor in the form of the South African in a straight fight between the protagonists for the title was shaken off by Bagnaia already on the straight between turns seven and eight. Disrupting the territory of the four championship leaders in the top four positions in the sprint was not easily tolerated by Bastianini either. Seconds after Bagnai’s attack, the Italian tackled Binder, who couldn’t even keep up with Marc Márquez’s pressure moments later.

Thanks to a brief episode of the KTM machine in a four-length sea of the home Ducati, Martín had already built up a cushion of seven tenths on Bagnai by the end of the opening lap. Binder’s fall was sealed and eventually completed by stablemate Pedro Acosta, however, on a satellite KTM.

A hectic and heated start to the sprint cooled down the next few laps. The gaps between the four Ducati riders hovered around the midpoint of six tenths. While Bagnaia pulled on the back wheel of Martino in certain sections of the circuit, the 26-year-old Team Pramac rider, on the other hand, stuttered slightly in others. Third-placed Bastianini could not keep up with the pace of the leading duo, but still controlled the situation with a one-second margin.

Martín makes a mistake and throws away the win, Bagnaia again pulls back the points deficit

Bagnaia was clearly not going to settle for another sprint failure. Not only would he lose important championship points to Martín again. He would also once again be left as the loser in front of his home crowd, especially after a double second place finish in the first leg of the Misano doubleheader.

The phrase “push the envelope” was a very poor description of Bagnai’s efforts to catch Martín. Even more so when he nearly fell on his front wheel on lap seven going through turn five. On the very next lap, however, Martín produced another of his misses of the year as he pressured his way into the lead. Although the Spaniard didn’t crash this time, he did gift the top spot to Bagnai after a wide pass through turn 13.

There was almost more contact when Martín’s braking into T14 pulled the dirty air towards the rear of Bagnai’s ducati. Martín could not find an answer to this mistake and circled behind the red ducati until the end of the sprint, but still close enough in case Bagnaia himself did something similar.

However, this was not the case and the 27-year-old Italian rode to a very important victory on home soil. Although it was only a sprint, Bagnaia pulled Martino’s lead at the head of the championship down to four points. Bastianini finished third, Márquez took fourth position even after a trip off the track and Acosta rounded out the top five positions.

Results of the sprint at the Emilia Romagna MotoGP Grand Prix (13 laps = 54.938 km; top 10 only):

1. Francesco Bagnaia (Ita., Ducati) 19:50.237
2. Jorge Martín (Span., Ducati) +0.285
3. Enea Bastianini (Ita., Ducati) +1.319
4. Marc Márquez (Span., Ducati) +5.386
5. Pedro Acosta (Span., KTM) +6.580
6. Brad Binder (RJA, KTM) +8.143
7. Fabio Quartararo (Fra., Yamaha) +8.405
8. Marco Bezzecchi (Ita., Ducati) +8.965
9. Franco Morbidelli (Ita., Ducati) +9.271
10. Maverick Viñales (Span., Aprilia) +9.538

2024 MotoGP rider standings (top 10 only):

1. Jorge Martín (Spaniard, Ducati) 321
2. Francesco Bagnaia (Ita., Ducati) 317
3. Marc Márquez (Spa., Ducati) 265
4. Enea Bastianini (Ita., Ducati) 257
5. Brad Binder (RJA, KTM) 165
6. Pedro Acosta (Span., KTM) 157
7. Maverick Viñales (Span., Aprilia) 139
8. Fabio Di Giannantonio (Ita., Ducati) 119
9. Aleix Espargaró (Span., Aprilia) 119
10. Álex Márquez (Span., Ducati) 114

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