Francesco Bagnaia prevails in fight against Marc Marquez to win a close MotoGP race in Spanish GP, with Marco Bezzecchi in third.
It was a clean start from pole for Marc Marquez on his Gresini Ducati in the MotoGP race in Spanish GP at Jerez, with Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia climbing up from seventh to second at the end of Lap 1, while Pramac Ducati’s Jorge Martin was third.
VR46 Ducati’s Marco Bezzecchi was fourth with Gresini’s Alex Marquez fifth, KTM’s Brad Binder in sixth, VR46’s Fabio di Giannantonio seventh, Trackhouse Aprilia’s Miguel Oliveira eighth, KTM’s Jack Miller ninth and Ducati’s Enea Bastianini in 10th.
The fight for the lead intensified in the next couple of laps as Bagnaia made the move to lead Spanish GP. But he made a mistake after going wide which allowed Martin in the lead with Marquez in second, but Bagnaia came back soon to take second.
After few laps, Martin led the way closely from Bagnaia with Bezzecchi in third from M Marquez and A Marquez, who had Binder on his tail along with Oliveira, Bastianini, Miller and di Giannantonio in the Top 10, with Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales in 11th.
GASGAS Tech 3’s Augusto Fernandez was handed a Double Long Gap penalty for jump start, but since he didn’t serve it, he was handed a Ride Through Penalty. There was a crash for KTM’s Dani Pedrosa at the early stage, with another one later on.
LCR Honda’s Johann Zarco and Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro had a crash to retire with the incident under investigation. The Frenchman was also investigated for a contact with Tech 3’s Pedro Acosta, but they were cleared for their incident.
Amid this, Martins crashed out from the lead after pressure from Bagnaia, with the Italian assuming the Spanish GP lead. Bezzecchi was second but came under tremendous pressure from M Marquez, who eventually took second in pursuit of Bagnaia.
A Marquez was a steady fourth from Binder, who was under pressure from Bastianini. Behind them, Oliveira was seventh from di Giannantonio, Vinales and Acosta in the Top 10, where the Spaniard rose from 18th on Lap 1 to be 10th.
Trackhouse’s Raul Fernandez was 11th from Honda’s Joan Mir, Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo & Alex Rins and LCR’s Takaaki Nakagami in the Top 15 points places. There was another clash between Pramac’s Franco Morbidelli and Miller, which will be investigated.
At the front, meanwhile, Bagnaia started to come under pressure from Marquez, who eventually tried a move with five laps remaining. But Bagnaia forced him to stay second after contact between the two in the right-hander.
It didn’t end there, as Marquez came back on him but went wide to allow Bagnaia back up. The Italian then maintained his lead until the end to the MotoGP race in Spanish GP from M Marquez by 0.372s margin, as Bezzecchi returned to the podium in third.
A Marquez was a distant fourth from Bastianini who was close to take Marquez after ending up just 0.048s margin. He passed Binder in the final laps to be fifth, with the South African in sixth ahead of di Giannantonio, Oliveira, Vinales and Acosta in the Top 10.
R Fernandez ended up 11th from Mir, Rins and Nakagami as Quartararo dropped to 15th, with Honda wildcard Stefan Bradl out of points in 16th ahead of the last of runner Luca Marini on the Honda after the retirement of A Fernandez and Aprilia’s Lorenzo Savadori.