2024 San Marino MotoGP: Marc Marquez wins dramatic after Jorge Martin blunder
Dramatic race sees Marquꦚez dominate from Bagnai♐a as Martin blundered
Marc Marquez dominated a dramatic MotoGP San Marino Grand Prix from Francesco Bag♔naia, as a strategic blunder from Jorge Martin saw him finish a lap down in 15th.
Spots of rain fell on the Misano circuit as the riders took to the grid for the 27-lap grand prix, and at one stage ea꧑rly on got heavy enough ꦡto turn the race on its head.
Martin pitted at the 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 the rain staying away, Martin was forced to box for a second time on lap nine and wo🤪uld rejoin a la♐pped 15th.
The tricky conditions allowed Marc Marquez to rise from ninth on the grid to tak൩e the lead on lap eighth, before the Gresini rider streaked 3.1s clear o♓f Bagnaia to the chequered flag.
It marks Marquez’s first back-to-back victory in MotoGP since 2021 and puts him 53 points down in the cham♊pionship, while Bagnaia is now only seven adrift of Martin.
Ducati’s Bagnaia made amends for the poor start that lost him Saturday’s𝔉 sprint by leading into Turn 1 on the opening lap ahead o♛f Pramac duo Franco Morbidelli and Martin.
🅺Martin quickly dispensed of his team-mate at Turn 4 and set about chasing down Bagnaia.
But after two laps, Bagnaia was half a second clear and Martin✤ was falling into the clutches of Morbidelli - who resisted early pressure from Tech3’s Pedro Acosta.
On lap seven, however, condit𒊎ions started to deteriorate and the pack closed up, with Martin rig🌳ht 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 Alei🐻x Espargaro, Maverick 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 Brad Binder and Marquez at the start of lap eighth, but Marquez would pass both at Turns 14 and 15 at the end of th💙e❀ tour to hit the front.
Marquez would never cede the lead, resisting pressure from Bagnaia before evenᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚtually breaking the reigning world champion in the latter stages.
The Gresini rider would༒ streak 3.1s clear to 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, but꧙ he would end up 2.326s 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 G🗹iannantonio (VR46) and KTM wildcard Pol Espargaro.
T🥀he final points went to Miguel Oliv🔴eira (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 and fended ꦗoff Vinales for the final poꦏint.
Morbidelli crashed out at the start of lap seven when t꧋he rain fell, while Aleix Espargaro retired after his second pitstop ✃and Augusto Fernandez (Tech3) crashed out.
𓃲Honda’s Luca Marini did not start ꦓdue to illness.
