Motorsport
Rain prematurely ended the MotoGP Japanese GP! Martín’s win cut Bagnaia’s lead to just three points
The 14th Grand Prix of this year’s MotoGP series offered a dramatic spectacle. Jorge Martín continued to close the gap on World Championship leader Francesco “Pecco” Bagnaia by triumphing in the Japanese Grand Prix at the Motegi circuit. The race was affected by rain, which gradually intensified to the point where on-track action had to be interrupted and eventually stopped prematurely.
The 14th Grand Prix of this year’s MotoGP series offered a dramatic spectacle. Jorge Martín continued to close the gap on World Championship leader Francesco “Pecco” Bagnaia by triumphing in the Japanese Grand Prix at the Motegi circuit. The race was affected by rain, which gradually intensified to the point where on-track action had to be interrupted and eventually stopped prematurely. Martín’s Japanese double made him even closer to Bagnai, who finished second by just three points! The podium was once again enjoyed by Repsol Honda rider Marc Márquez after almost a year.
The situation before the race
The Motegi circuit first hosted a World Championship road race in 1999. It first shared the calendar with the more famous Suzuka circuit, but dropped out after 2003 following a fatal accident involving Daijiro Kato. Motegi subsequently became the only host of MotoGP races in the Land of the Rising Sun.
Ducati could already celebrate another constructors’ championship triumph here in Japan. This could have happened if its most successful rider had scored 19 points more than the best result of the KTM machine.
While the constructors’ title is virtually decided, the same is not true for the riders’ title. Jorge Martín won Saturday’s start-finish sprint from pole position, narrowing the gap to championship leader Pecca Bagnaia to a modest eight points.
A few minutes before the start of the race, raindrops began to fall. However, their intensity was not such as to delay the programme. During the warm-up lap, the teams prepared spare motorcycles set up for the wet conditions, but the riders went into the race on dry shoes.
Rain = a recipe for drama
Once again, Martín had no problem holding on to the race lead as he did yesterday. As in the case of the sprint, factory KTM riders Jack Miller and Brad Binder made a great start off the grid and engaged in a battle for second place with MS leader Bagnaia.
The changeable conditions caught Zarco and Viñales out worst, as they collided just after the start in the first corner. While the Frenchman continued his race, the Spaniard momentarily ended up in a duck and dropped to the tail of the field.
The rain intensified during the first lap, forcing the vast majority of riders to pit at the end of it and swap machines for those set up for the wet.
The only Yamaha riders left on the track were Fabio Quartararo, Franco Morbidelli and wildcard Cal Crutchlow, and the two replacements Stefan Bradl and Michele Pirro. The one who didn’t make the bike change was Brad Binder, who dropped into the middle of the second ten. But there was no doubt that this would be any kind of masterstroke by these riders as the rain never let up.
Aleix Espargaró and Aprilia took the provisional lead. The Spaniard’s lead didn’t last long, however, as compatriot Martín got ahead of him at Turn 10. The other riders headed to their mechanics at the end of the lap, namely Quartararo and Bradl.
The rainy drama continued with each successive lap. First Martín made a mistake, which caused Espargaró to take the lead back from a distance. Eight-time champion Marc Márquez also wanted to join the pack vying for the top positions, but his attempts on Espargaró were not working. Within a few laps of each other, the rest of the dry-shod riders pitted and Martín regained the lost positions.
Even in the wet, the Ducati set the pace and the leading trio in the championship lined up in the top three positions after overcoming Espargar and Márquez. Binder’s race, meanwhile, went from bad to worse when he fell back after losing positions after stops.
More rain didn’t make for a more interesting spectacle… on the contrary
The trio of Martín, Bagnaia and Bezzecchi were running away from their rivals. The group of Jack Miller, Joan Miró and Raúl Fernández fighting for seventh place was responsible for the notable moments. Miller voluntarily eliminated himself from this battle when he left the track in turn 11 under braking.
But who was roused to a great performance by the rain was the factory Honda of Márquez. The 30-year-old Cervera native first pulled away and then passed Bezzecchi, who he took third position from. However, before he could attack second-placed Bagnaia, track conditions deteriorated rapidly.
Rain began to fall on the circuit to such an extent that a red flag was displayed at the end of lap 13. Márquez was raising his hand at the exact moment it was raised, so it was impossible to determine whether this was a request to stop the race or to inform the drivers of its interruption. A few seconds earlier, Zarco had crashed in the fast twelfth corner, clearly indicating an impassable track.
It took twenty minutes for the drivers to get back on track. Although the reconnaissance lap after exiting the pits went well, hopes of a restart in the Japanese VC were extinguished during the warm-up lap. In fact, the race management raised the red flags again during the race and subsequently called an early end to the race.
The winner of the fourteenth race of the season was Martín ahead of Bagnaia and Márquez, who scored his first podium finish since last year’s VC Australia. In addition, as more than half of the prescribed distance was covered, full points were awarded. Martín thus reduced Bagnaia’s already small lead to an even smaller three points.
It was Ducati that almost celebrated the constructors’ title here in Japan, but Miller’s sixth place postponed the brand’s coronation from Bologna to Indonesia. Here, however, the decision could be made during the sprint, just if the best Ducati finishes sixth.
MotoGP Japanese Grand Prix results (Race 14/20, 12 laps = 57.612 km; top 10 only):
1. Jorge Martín (Sp., Ducati) 24:06.314
2. Francesco Bagnaia (Ita., Ducati) +1.403
3. Marc Márquez (Span., Honda) +2.013
4. Marco Bezzecchi (Ita., Ducati) +2.943
5. Aleix Espargaró (Span., Aprilia) +3.181
6. Jack Miller (Aus., KTM) +6.837
7. Augusto Fernández (Span., KTM) +7.587
8. Fabio di Giannantonio (Ita., Ducati) 8.602
9. Raúl Fernández (Span., Aprilia) +11.229
10. Fabio Quaratararo (Fra., Yamaha) +12.244
2023 MotoGP rider standings (after 14/20; top 10 only):
1. Francesco Bagnaia (Ita., Ducati) 319 points
2. Jorge Martín (Spa., Ducati) 316
3. Marco Bezzecchi (Ita., Ducati) 265
4. Brad Binder (RJA, KTM) 201
5. Aleix Espargaró (Span., Aprilia) 171
6. Johann Zarco (Fra., Ducati) 162
7. Maverick Viñales (Span., Aprilia) 139
8. Luca Marini (Ita., Ducati) 135
9. Jack Miller (Aus., KTM) 125
10. Fabio Quaratararo (Fra., Yamaha) 111
Source: MotoGP
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