2024 San Marino MotoGP: Marc Marquez wins dramatic after Jorge Martin blunder
Dramatic race sees Mar൲quez dominate from Bagnaia as Martin blu🔯ndered
Marc Marquez dominated a dramatic M꧅otoGP San Marino Grand Prix from Francesco Bagnaia, as a strategic blunder from Jorge Martin saw him finish a lap down in 15th.
Spots of rain fell on the Misano circu🐼it as the riders took to the grid for the 27-lap grand prix, and at one stage early on got heavy enough to turn the race on its head.
Martin pitted at th✃e end of lap seven for his wet bike,ꦿ but was the only one of the leaders to do so and would prove to be a major blunder as conditions quickly improved.
With t𒁃he rain staying away, Martin was forced to box for a second time on lap nine and would rejoin a lapped 15th.
The tricky conditions allowed M♏arc Marquez to rise from ninth on the grid to take the lead on lap eighth, be൲fore the Gresini rider streaked 3.1s clear of Bagnaia to the chequered flag.
It marks Marquez’s first back-to-back vi꧅ctory in MotoGP since 2021 and puts him 53 points down in the championship, while Bagnaia is now only seven adrift of Martin.
Ducati’s Bagnaia made amends for the poor start that lost him Saturday’s sprint by leading into Turn 1 on the opening lap ahead of Pramac duo Francoღ Morbidelli and Martin.
Martin quickly dispensed of his team-mate at Turn 4 and set about chasing down Bagn💎aia.
But after two laps, Bagnaia was half a second clear and Martin was falling into the clutches of Morbidel🙈li - who resisted early pressure from Tech3’s Pedro Acosta.
On lap seven, however, conditions started to dete⛦riorate and the pack closed up, with Martin right on the tail of Bagnaia as Marquez capitalised on the situation to get ꧅into podium contention.
Bagnaia continued to lead, while Martin elected to pit at the end of that tour for his wet bike along with Aleix Espargaro, M๊averick Vinales, Acosta - who crashed on lap four having sustained aero damage to his bike in a touch with Morbidelli - and Alex Rins.
The rest stayed out and this proved to be the correct decision, as the rain quickly🤪 stopped.
Bagnaia led KTM’s Bra💎d Binder and Marquez at the start of lap eighth, but Marquez would pass both at Tu𝕴rns 14 and 15 at the end of the tour to hit the front.
Marquez would never cede the lead, resisting pressure from Bagnaia before eventually breaking the reignꦉing world champion in the l൲atter stages.
The Gresini rider would streak 3.1s clear t༒o win over Bagnaia, while Enea Bastianini completed the podium on the sister factory Ducati.
Bastianini at one stage looked like he could threaten the leaders, but he would end up 2ℱ.326s behind Bagnaia.
Binder took fourth in the later laps, with Marco Bezzecchi fifth on his VR46 Ducati ahead of Alex Marquez (Gresini), Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha)꧃, Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46) and KTM wildcard Pol Espargaro.
The final po🅷ints went to Miguel Oliveira (Trackhouse), Johann Zarco (LCR), Takaaki Nakagami (LCR), Stefan Bradl (Honda) and Martin.
Martin pitted for a second time to go back to his dry bike an🦩d fended off Vinales for the final point.
Morbidelli crashed out at the start of lap seven w🌟hen the rain fell, while Aleix Espargaro retired after his second pitstop and Augusto Fernandez (Tech3) crashed ouꦓt.
Hondꩵa’s Luca 🍎Marini did not start due to illness.
