Enea Bastianini overtakes on the last lap and beats Jorge Martín; Pecco Bagnaia crashed and Ducati wins the Constructors’ title – Read
Everything was in place for the start of the most anticipated race of the weekend, with Francesco Bagnaia starting from pole position, Jorge Martín in second and Enea Bastianini completing the front row, ahead of Brad Binder, Pedro Acosta and Marco Bezzecchi who were in second.
Martín started the race by moving to the front, but in the first corner Bagnaia retook the lead, Bastianini held off Binder and was third.
Marc Márquez soon moved up to sixth, beating Bezzecchi, and the yellow flag was raised in the first sector after Binder went down in turn 4. The South African was back in the race, however.
On the second lap Martín moved to the front but was carrying too much speed and Bagnaia regained the lead, while Bastianini was the fastest on the track for the time being. Acosta, in fourth, was 0.489s off the #23.
Martín went back to the front and was now provisionally nine points ahead of Bagnaia in the championship, while further back Acosta reduced the gap to Bestia, now down to 0.3s. On the last lap Martín was 0.628s faster than the world champion.
With seven laps completed, the top ten looked like this: Martín, Bestia, Bagnaia, Acosta, M. Márquez, Bezzecchi, Fabio Di Giananntonio, Franco Morbidelli, Aleix Espargaró, Maverick Viñales, respectively.
The factory Ducati duo were getting further and further apart, with Bestia taking a 1.9s lead over Bagnaia, but the #23 could “help” his teammate by getting closer and closer to Martín, and worse, the #89 received a warning for exceeding track limits and surely what happened yesterday in the Sprint was also on the Spaniard’s mind. 0.376s separated Martín and Bastianini.
Acosta, meanwhile, crashed and was out of the race.
Fabio Quartararo was on the rise and the Yamaha rider was now sixth, behind Bezzecchi and ahead of Morbidelli. Jack Miller in 11th was the best KTM rider on track yesterday, and Johann Zarco in 15th was the best Honda rider.
With 13 laps completed Martín had made up some time and remained the leader, now 0.672s ahead of Bestia. Bagnaia was 3.466s behind the #89, and in turn had a 1.4s lead over M.Márquez, while Bezzecchi rounded out the top five.
Further down the standings Miller dropped to 14th place and was overtaken by Miguel Oliveira, DiGia and Raúl Fernández. Álex Márquez – with a warning for exceeding track limits – was tenth.
And out of nowhere Bagnaia started to improve his pace, lapping in the low 31s, and shortly afterwards he even set the fastest lap, in 1:30.939s, and had recovered 1s over Bastianini, with 11 laps to go. But… that wasn’t all: Bagnaia improved his time again and was now lapping in 1:30.877s, and if he continued at this pace, victory was perfectly possible.
Martín continued to lead, but in the last few laps he lost 0.2s to Bastianini, and continued to drop time, with the gap now 0.325s.
Zarco, DiGia, Binder, and Bezzecchi were joined in the meantime by riders with a warning for exceeding track limits. Martín had his best lap of the race so far in 1:31.150s.
Note to Joan Mir, who in 14th was now the best Honda on track, ahead of Luca Marini and Zarco, in 16th and 17th respectively.
With eight laps to go, Martín was still 0.229s ahead of Bestia, who could attack the championship leader at any moment. On the following lap the gap between the two had dropped to 0.194s, but… drama! Bagnaia, out of nowhere, lost the front of his bike and crashed unexpectedly, and M.Márquez was now third.
Soon the pressure on Martín was mounting, with Bastianini only 0.134s behind, while the #23 seemed to be “just” waiting for a mistake to attack.
With three laps to go Martín was holding on to the lead, which seemed to be hanging by a thread and the pressure was higher than ever, and on the last lap Bastianini was super aggressive and forced the overtake, much to the displeasure of Martín who went wide, raised his hand in protest but could do nothing.
In the end Bastianini confirmed the win, and Ducati’s 100th in the category, which also confirmed the constructors’ title.
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