Drama straight from the warm up lap as 2024 World Champion Jorge Martin’s Aprilia had technical difficulties, forcing him to start the sighting lap from the pits. He was then allowed to take his place in 11th on the grid, but then made to run a double long-lap penalty.
A similar start to yesterday at the front, but this time Marc was more aggressive on the brakes into Turn 1 and got himself tucked in behind Marco Bezzecchi and just ahead of his brother Alex. The lead trio again a complete class of their own and by lap 3 were already a second clear of everyone.
Johan Zarco and Joan Mir (Honda’s most experienced riders) both crashing out into Turn 4 on lap 1. Zarco managing to remount and get back on track.
Alex Rins and Agusto Fernandez both got long lap penalties for jumping their starts.
By lap 3 Ai Ogura, who was the only one who gambled and went the soft rear tyre, crashed out of 16th.
Maverick Vinales went down in 18th place on lap 5. His shoulder not fully recovered is
Quartararo held 4th ahead of the two fluro-yellow VR46 boys. Bagnaia with a better start, but as the race went on, both him and Quartararo dropped pace.
Acosta, starting from 9th was flying along, he overtook both VR46 boys and then Quartararo, after a couple of attempts. But then after making a run for Alex Marquez and actually making ground on him, his chain snapped and shot off the bike, leaving him rolling to a DNF.
An infuriated Acosta gave a one-finger salute to his RC16 machine and then stormed off. His teammate Binder, had broken 2 chains in the practice sessions and gave a similar salute. Clearly more than a little bad luck down at KTM.
Then just when things were looking a little better for Pecco, he lost the front end and a nice 7th place. So 0 points and crashes in both races he won last year and scored Maximum points at. A difficult new reality for the local favourite.
Bez, having the race of his life and on the ragged edge of his Aprilia, unfortunately pushing a little too much and braking so late he nearly went off the track. Marc of-course jumped on this mistake like he stolen it. Most thought Marc would then do his usual gapping into the distance but Bez had other plans. With the Italian crowd behind him, he kept Marc honest all the way to the finish.
The closest race of the year and one that pushed Marquez to his max. He and Bez put in fastest laps, one after another for the last 5 and had a whopping gap of 7.7 seconds back to bronze medallist Alex Marquez.
Bez now in red hot form and only 8 points behind the struggling Bagnaia, who sits 3rd in the Championship.With those results, Marquez’s 7th MotoGP title is almost guaranteed to be in Motegi, Japan two weeks, and if not he has another 5 more weekends to make it happen. This weekend he already broke the points record at 512 and with 6 rounds to go and no clear weaknesses it could be the biggest bag ever! But you never know so lets hope for some more drama and good racing.
