Motorsport
The title fight is heating up! Martín wins Misano after sprint and Sunday’s race, Bagnaia saves podium one week after horrific crash
The last round of the regular European MotoGP season took place in Misano, Italy. Jorge Martín added to Saturday’s triumph with a win in the main race to close the overall gap to leader Francesco “Pecco” Bagnaia to 36 points. The reigning world champion recorded a third place finish despite the pain caused by a crash in Barcelona last weekend. Marco Bezzecchi slipped in between the pair, leaving Sunday’s podium unchanged from the sprint.
It’s almost beyond belief that just a week later, standings leader Pecco Bagnaia took part in the VC San Marino despite a brutal crash in Barcelona that saw Brad Binder and his ktm run over his ankles.
the 26-year-old Italian, who is aiming for a title defence, heroically overcame the odds to claim a front row spot in the morning qualifying session. Not only that, he fell short of his Ducati teammates Jorge Martín and Marco Bezzecchi in the sprint, but with a final third place he proved that despite his injury he has what it takes to hold on to the front positions.
On-track battles between the top 3 riders in the series
Pole position holder Martín made an ideal start to the 27-lap VC San Marino and held the lead. As in the sprint, Bagnaia squeaked into second place ahead of Bezzecchi after the start. The winner of the last race in Catalonia, Aleix Espargaró, dropped from sixth to 11th after starting the race.
Bagnaia was aware of his limitations, especially the pain below his knee that affected him significantly at the end of the sprint. It was no surprise, then, as he tried to manufacture any opportunity to manoeuvre on Martín in the early laps of the race and then try to build as much of a lead as possible.
Martín, however, managed to keep his cool and cleverly blocked all attacks, although often only centimetres separated the pair. Meanwhile Bezzecchi watched all the action from third place.
On lap six Bagnaia made a mistake and gave his second place to Bezzecchi. But it was a brief exchange of positions, with the championship leader snatching second place back.
A promising race for Brad Binder ended unhappily when he crashed out of fourth place on lap eight. However, the South African subsequently picked up his machine and resumed the race. However, this mistake was exploited by Dani Pedrosa, who returned to the saddle as a wild card in the VC San Marino. The almost 38-year-old legend of the sport was thrust into fourth place, where he finished Saturday’s short race.
A calm middle of the race peppered with a few crashes
Binder’s crash opened up the gap between the leading trio and the rest of the field. Fourth-placed Pedrosa found himself in a relatively calm zone, and without any difficulty from behind, he began to concentrate on closing the gap on third-placed Bezzecchi.
The middle part of the race belonged to the midfield battles. A pleasant surprise was the sixth place of Marc Márquez, who fiercely held off Miguel Oliveira of Aprilia on the factory Honda.
On lap 10, Jack Miller and Michele Pirro fell in the same place in turn four. For Miller, the San Marino VC will not be an event the Australian will remember fondly. He struggled in the top 10 all race weekend and was absolutely no match for teammate Binder and especially returnee Pedrosa.
It didn’t take long for the marshals standing at turn four to get busy again. For Joan Mir crashed again and continues to have only two grand prix to his name, during which he saw the chequered flag.
The leading trio held a lead of around one second on Pedrosa, who was himself increasing his cushion on the riders behind. Nothing special was happening on the track apart from Polo Espargar’s crash. So at least it was worth mentioning Raul Fernandez’s solid eighth place on the satellite aprilia, just behind eight-time champion Márquez.
Pedroso again narrowly missed the podium
With ten laps to go, the action at the front stirred for the first time in a while. Martín finally broke free from Bagnai, who in turn was being badly pressured by Bezzecchi. Bagnaia clearly began to struggle, which resulted in him losing second position to his compatriot. In addition, Pedrosa was rapidly closing in on him, which brought everyone out of their seats who wanted to see the “Little Samurai” on the podium one more time.
Behind the leading four, other battles for positions continued. Oliveira held off Márquez to take sixth place from the 30-year-old Spaniard. Meanwhile, deep in the field, Binder clawed his way back into the points after a crash.
Martín and Bezzecchi rode their own races, while Bagnaia battled a charging Pedrosa for the final podium spot despite a painful injury. It was a similar situation to Saturday’s sprint in which the visibly faster Pedrosa failed to overcome Bagnaia.
However, the experienced Pedrosa took no risks and, unlike in the sprint, did not even attempt an overtaking manoeuvre. The devastated Bagnaia eventually held on to third place behind Martín and Bezzecchi, who had closed his gap in the overall standings. Pedrosa repeated Saturday’s fourth position, with Maverick Viñales finishing fifth. The top four finished as they did in the sprint the previous day.
Bagnaia’s lead was reduced to 36 points over Martín after the VC San Martín. Binder’s final fourteenth-place finish most likely eliminated him definitively from the real world title fight.
The MotoGP series will leave Europe for two and a half months and head to India for the first time in its history. The Buddh circuit near New Delhi is particularly iconic to fans of Formula One, which visited the circuit a total of three times between 2011 and 2013.
San Marino MotoGP Grand Prix results (12/20, 27 laps = 114.1 km; top 10 only):
1. Jorge Martín (Sp., Ducati) 41:33.421
2. Marco Bezzecchi (Ita., Ducati) +1.350
3. Francesco Bagnaia (Ita., Ducati) +3.812
4. Dani Pedrosa (Span., KTM) +4.481
5. Maverick Viñales (Span., Aprilia) +10.510
6. Miguel Oliveira (Por., Aprilia) +12.274
7. Marc Márquez (Span., Honda) +13.576
8. Raúl Fernández (Span., Aprilia) +14.091
9. Luca Marini (Ita., Ducati) +14.982
10. Johann Zarco (Fra., Ducati) +15.484
2023 MotoGP rider standings (after 12/20; top 10 only):
1. Francesco Bagnaia (Ita., Ducati) 283 points
2. Jorge Martín (Spa., Ducati) 247
3. Marco Bezzecchi (Ita., Ducati) 218
4. Brad Binder (RJA, KTM) 173
5. Aleix Espargaró (Span., Aprilia) 160
6. Johann Zarco (Fra., Ducati) 147
7. Luca Marini (Ita., Ducati) 135
8. Maverick Viñales (Span., Aprilia) 128
9. Álex Márquez (Sp., Ducati) 108
10. Jack Miller (Aus., KTM) 104
Source: MotoGP
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