Motorsport
Double euphoria! Zarco scores his first MotoGP Grand Prix win in Australia, Di Giannantonio also makes his first podium appearance
Incredible late drama was offered by the rescheduled Australian Grand Prix at the popular Phillip Island circuit on Saturday. The sixteenth grand prix of the season saw a double debut as Johann Zarco smoked his first win in the Royal World Championship category after a superbly calculated drive.
Incredible late drama was offered by the rescheduled Australian Grand Prix at the popular Phillip Island circuit on Saturday. The sixteenth grand prix of the season saw a double debut as Johann Zarco smoked his first win in the Royal World Championship category after a superbly calculated drive. On the last lap of the race he overcame the until then dominant Jorge Martín, who ran out of tyres at the end of the race and eventually dropped to 5th place. Zarco was joined on the podium by Pecco Bagnaia and Fabio Di Giannantonio, for whom this marked the first visit to the podium.
Why was the main MotoGP race on Saturday?
The MotoGP series continues its challenging Australian-Asian tour. This time, the world’s fastest riders show off their skills at the Phillip Island circuit as part of the Australian Grand Prix. This annual grand prix offers phenomenal racing, often featuring battles for the triumph right down to the last few corners between several riders.
Before the start of this year’s Australian Grand Prix, however, there was some discussion about the weather forecast, which didn’t look very favourable. Although the weather conditions on the circuit are generally terribly difficult to predict, there was a threat that due to the strong winds and rain there would be no racing at all on Sunday.
The promoter of the Dorna series had already decided to switch Saturday’s sprint with Sunday’s main Royal Cubature race on Friday because of these concerns. The rest of the schedule, including the Moto2 and Moto3 races, remained unchanged.
The start of the race was without any collisions
The morning qualifying session was dominated by Jorge Martín, who definitely wanted to put behind him the disappointment of the VC Indonesia, in which he dropped from the leader’s position. He was joined on the front row by KTM’s Brad Binder and Martín’s direct rival for the world title, Francesco “Pecco” Bagnaia.
Martín had no trouble at the start and held on to the lead. Although the first corners of the Phillip Island circuit offered plenty of room for overtaking, the order at the front of the field didn’t change much during the first lap. Binder and Bagnaia maintained their positions, with Fabio Di Giannantonio earning one position. Jack Miller was the exception to the rule, working his way up from eighth on the grid to fourth.
In contrast, the Yamaha motorcycles made a miserable start to the race. Franco Morbidelli and Fabio Quartararo were stuck in 18th and 20th respectively. There was therefore little talk of a possible repeat of their success in Indonesia, where Quartararo finished third.
An unusually uneventful grand prix
Martín and Binder began to dictate the pace, which Bagnaia did not accept in the opening laps of the race. The championship leader, on the other hand, rather spun the other riders behind him. Very quickly his gap to second-placed Binder climbed to 1.5 seconds, while the group of Miller, Di Giannantonio and Marc Márquez looked for any loopholes to get ahead of the Italian.
While Miller and Márquez vied to see who could get past Bagnaia first, Di Giannantonio took the initiative for them, seamlessly taking third place from his compatriot on lap three.
Unusually by Phillip Island standards, however, the field was relatively quickly torn apart. The gaps between the front-runners climbed to at least over one second. A cluster of riders fighting for fifth place tried to put on at least some sort of show. Márquez and Johann Zarco swapped positions several times behind Bagnaia, while Miller and Aleix Espargaró waited for a mistake from the riders ahead.
Once even the battles around fifth place died down, the differences between the leading riders took centre stage. Martín’s lead over Binder was three seconds at the halfway point of the race. The Spaniard held the same lead last time out in Indonesia until he dropped his Ducati into a duck.
On lap 11, the first crash of the race occurred when a late-braking Joan Mir tried to avoid Luco Marini in turn four. The Spaniard eventually failed to control his machine and fell, fortunately putting his machine down at low speed. Even so, the 2020 World Champion recorded his eighth retirement of the season.
The race was brought to life by the question of the correct tyre choice
Two laps later, Augusto Fernández, the only newcomer to MotoGP, emulated Miró. However, things slowly started to heat up at the front. Binder began to fall back, allowing the others, led by Di Giannantonio and Bagnaia, to press the South African. Zarco, whose qualities were just coming to the surface at the end of the race, joined the group for second place.
The first signs of tyre problems were evidenced by Márquez, whose choice of soft rear tyre cost him positions lap after lap. Race leader Martín made the same decision, but he continued to hold a margin of more than three seconds.
On lap 19, Di Giannantonio made his way past Binder after several laps of preparation. However, despite the Gresini Ducati rider’s great speed, the fourth man in the standings wasn’t about to give up and a few laps later he was back in second place. Meanwhile, Zarco was taking on Bagnaia in a battle for fourth position.
An extremely exciting finish to the Australian GP
It looked like Martín had it in the bag. but the 25-year-old Madrid native ran out of tyres and his lead began to drop rapidly with three laps to go. He was still holding a small gap going into the final circuit. Behind him, however, the group now led by Zarco had hopes of a surprise victory, but even its members were unable to agree on who should lead the group through constant battles.
If the course of the Australian VC so far had been unexpectedly dull, the last two rounds made up for it all. Martín, who was just a whisker away from significantly closing the gap to Bagnaya at the head of the championship, absolutely lost the pace.
Going into Turn 4 on the last circuit, the five drivers were almost shoulder to shoulder. Zarco produced a superb manoeuvre on the struggling teammate Martín, who immediately dropped behind Bagnaiy as well. The 26-year-old Italian was keen to take advantage of the Pramac drivers’ duel and almost went to the very inside of both riders, but Zarco protected his newly-acquired lead.
Martín eventually fell behind both Di Giannantonio and Binder. In one lap, he lost a vital fourteen points in the battle for this year’s title. But none of this bothered Zarco, who after seven years in MotoGP, nineteen podiums and eight pole positions, finally rode to his first win in the premier class.
Second went to Bagnaia, who extended his lead at the head of the championship. Di Giannantonio, who followed up his fourth-place finish in Indonesia, claimed his first career podium. A happier MotoGP podium hasn’t been seen in a long time!
MotoGP Japanese Grand Prix results (Race 16/20, 27 laps = 120.096 km; top 10 only):
1. Johann Zarco (Fra., Ducati) 40:39.446
2. Francesco Bagnaia (Ita., Ducati) +0.201
3. Fabio di Giannantonio (Ita., Ducati) +0.477
4. Brad Binder (RJA, KTM) +0.816
5. Jorge Martín (Span., Ducati) +1.008
6. Marco Bezzecchi (Ita., Ducati) +8.827
7. Jack Miller (Aus., KTM) +9.283
8. Aleix Espargaró (Span., Aprilia) +9.387
9. Álex Márquez (Span., Ducati) +9.696
10. Enea Bastianini (Ita., Ducati) +12.523
2023 MotoGP rider standings (after 14/20; top 10 only):
1. Francesco Bagnaia (Ita., Ducati) 366 points
2. Jorge Martín (Spa., Ducati) 339
3. Marco Bezzecchi (Ita., Ducati) 293
4. Brad Binder (RJA, KTM) 224
5. Johann Zarco (Fra., Ducati) 187
6. Aleix Espargaró (Sp., Aprilia) 185
7. Maverick Viñales (Span., Aprilia) 170
8. Luca Marini (Ita., Ducati) 148
9. Jack Miller (Aus., KTM) 144
10. Fabio Quaratararo (Fra., Yamaha) 134
Source: MotoGP
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