Bagnaia Doubles Down at TT Assen Winning Both the Sprint and Grand Prix

Francesco Bagnaia turned up the heat in the championship race this weekend at TT Assen after he double down on winnings topping the tables in both the TT Assen Sprint and Grand Prix races. Bagnaia struggled in early season to find his rhythm but those issues seem to have passed. This weekend’s pints haul draws him closer to Jorge Martin who had to settle for P2 in both races now only holds a 10 point lead in the championship. Bagnaia said, “Everything was perfect. We like to be very fast, very precise, and the weather was fantastic. We had the opportunity to put our best down and the chance was perfect.”

TT Assen Race Results

World Champions Standings

Prima Prmaca Racing and Yamaha have announced that starting in 2025 Prima Pramac Racing will leave its Ducati station for blue at Yamaha in a multi-year deal that benefits both parties in their endeavors to grow in MotoGP.

Lin Jarvis, Managing Director of Yamaha Motor Racing: “These are busy times for Yamaha, both on track and behind the scenes. Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. (YMC) and Yamaha Motor Racing (YMR) have made it no secret that they are putting all their effort into bike development.

“We now enter the next phase – one that we have been looking forward to for a long time: the arrival of a second Yamaha team. The new partnership with Prima Pramac Racing will take a different form than we have used in the past. Rather than a satellite team, with this new agreement Yamaha have put their trust in Pramac Racing, and we will be providing them with Factory bikes of the same specification used by the Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Team. “The targets are to accelerate bike development, which remains YMC and YMR’s key priority in our quest to return to winning ways, as well as having four competitive riders in the MotoGP championship in two top-class teams.“

In addition to the MotoGP programme, our collaboration includes a future Moto2 project to provide a platform to groom future MotoGP riders. It is too early to give details about this programme right now as this will be developed in the months ahead.

I would like to extend my personal appreciation and thanks to Paolo Campinoti, CEO of Pramac, and Gino Borsoi, Team Manager of Prima Pramac Racing, for their faith and trust in Yamaha. We have the greatest respect for their team, and we assure them of our full commitment to make this new partnership highly successful for many years to come.”

Day 1 at TT Assen was an all out shootout between the championship front runners. Francesco Bagnaia came out on top but the task to finish on top was no easy feat. The top 15 were separated by less than a second when it came to best lap times. Given the small margin between the front runners some surprising names found themselves in Q1 for qualifying tomorrow. Having missed the cut off after a brilliant start to the season Pedro Acosta will have to fight through Q1 along side Fabio Quartararo for a shot at a podium in tomorrow’s Sprint race.

The cathedral of speed, TT Assen is known for high speed action and also for being a bit of a spoiler for the front runners. Jorge Martin looks to extend his championship lead while Francesco Bagnaia looks to take away the top spot after Martin has failed to pull away decisively in the championship based on his recent shortcomings. Qualifying and Sprint race action kicks off tomorrow.

TT Assen Practice Results

Ducati Lenovo wowed the masses in Italy when Francesco Bagnaia and Enea Bastianini pulled out a 1-2 finish at Mugello after Bagnaia had previously secured the win in the Mugello Sprint Race. It was a perfect weekend for Bagnaia on the first stop on home turf for the 2024 campaign. The Italian jump up at the start of the race after qualifying fifth place. By the end of the first lap he was in first and would hold the lead for the rest of the race. Behind, Jorge Martin was able to recover from a slow start but would eventually lose out in the end to Bastianini and Martin settle for third. Unfortunately for Martin, Bagnaia’s double win further cut into Martin’s grasp on the championship.

Martin Retains Lead But Needs Answers

Despite not winning this weekend Jorge Martin retains an 18 point lead in the championship. His performances when he finishes races have been stellar however a recent string of mistake has seen his championship lead dwindle week by week. Martin said, “I was able to achieve the best result possible in a very complicated Grand Prix. It has been a difficult event, and after the crash on Saturday, the team and I decided to make a significant modification to the set-up. This important change paid off. Thanks to my team for the support, tomorrow we have a test day and then a short break. My motivation and my strength are higher than ever”.

If Martin is to retain his lead in the championship he will needed to return to his winning ways at the next round. The close Bagnaia gets the harder the championship title fight will be.

Italian Grand Prix Results

Championship Standings

After crashing out of FP3 Francesco Bagnaia came back with a vengeance in qualifying and the sprint race. Bagnaia started the sprint from P2 but got a much better start easily passing polesitter Jorge Martin. With Martin moving backwards Bagnaia took full advantage extending his lead out front. Martin would later crash out of the race with 4 laps remaining.

In the latter stages of the race the battle was on between Marc Marquez and Bagnaia for the top spot. Bagnaia’s teammate Enea Bastianini also crashed out of the race paving the way for Marquez to make his charge to the front. The pair battled but Bagnaia continued to shut the door and by the checkered flag he had built up a 1.5 second lead ahead. The win means Bagnaia cut 12 points off of Jorge Martin’s point advantage in the championship.

Pedro Acosta Continues Run of Podiums

MotoGP rookie wowed the masses again as he stayed poised behind the fighting ahead and lunged into P3 finding himself yet another podium this weekend. The top 5 was rounded out by Franco Morbidelli who matched his highest MotoGP finish of the season in P4 and Maverick Viñales in P5.

Sprint Race Results and Championship Standings

Championship Standings.

MotoGP is back after a quick turn around after leaving the festivities surrounding the Catalan GP last weekend. Up next is the Italian Grand Prix on the legendary Mugello Circuit. Jorge Martin looks to continue to build his championship lead while Francesco Bagnaia is poised to cut further into Martin’s point lead after coming off of a win in the Catalan Grand Prix last weekend.

Mugello is the first stop in Italy for the MotoGP riders campaign. Bagnaia will look to capitalize on home turf as he finds himself in unfamiliar territory having to fight his way back into the top spot. This year’s MotoGP grid is much more competitive at this point in the season than last year. Bagnaia seemingly had run away with the championship until a late stroke of form from Jorge Martin saw him come in contention for the title in the closing rounds of the season. With two races this weekend the battles on track between Martin and Bagnaia will be a treat for the fans in attendance.

Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello

Located 30km north-east of Florence in the beautiful countryside of Tuscany, Mugello is a modern circuit with excellent facilities. Bought by Ferrari back in 1988, the 5.245km track has been renovated to a high standard and has a growing reputation as one of the world’s most up-to-date, scenic and safest race circuits.

A blend of slow and fast turns with sweeping curves, long straights and off-camber corners make Mugello one of the most challenging circuits for the riders and engineers. Having hosted its first MotoGP event back in 1976 the venue became a permanent fixture in 1991 after extensive refurbishment. Set within a beautiful tree lined Tuscan valley, Mugello also offers ample viewing areas for a particularly boisterous and partisan Italian crowd.

The Italian Grand Prix Weekend Schedule

Francesco Bagnaia bounced back in the Catalan Grand Prix after missing out on in the sprint due to a crash from the lead in the sprint. Despite the crash Bagnaia avoided serious injury. That would be the story line for Sunday because Bagnaia looked poised to pounce on the championship leader Jorge Martin. Martin led the majority of the race but his tires started to fall off towards the mid point and after a crash Pedro Acosta gave up second place to Bagnaia who after a few laps came within striking distance of Martin. Bagnaia was lapping one tenth per lap faster than Martin by lap 16 of the race. However, Bagnaia was not able to pass Martin until lap 19.

Bagnaia Seizes Opportunity to Secure Win

Bagnaia wasted no time after finding a clean slipstream down the front straight at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya to make a pass on Martin. He succeeded on his first attempt and pulled away to take the win. Bagnaia said, “Today’s win was a very important one, both for how things panned out yesterday and also for last year’s results at this track. I tried to set the pace at the beginning and I thought it was the right one. As soon as Jorge (Martín) and Acosta got past me, I tried to stay with them, but I thought their pace was a bit too quick especially with regards to the tire wear on the full-race distance.

Then I saw that their pace got back to a rhythm that was similar to mine. Once I overtook Jorge, I noticed I had already pulled a 0.4secs margin on him in one lap, so the only thing I had to do was to make it to the finish line. I rode the final lap almost with the feet on the ground, to avoid surprises. Now the Mugello awaits, and I hope fans will turn up at the circuit as many as they did here.”

Marc Marquez Sneaks on to Podium

Aleix Espargaro held onto third place in the closing stages of the grand prix. That was until veteran and 8 time world champion Marc Marquez snuck his way onto the podium on the last lap of the race. Marquez said, “We keep improving each day, but it’s clear that it’s not always possible to save the weekend as we did here and in Le Mans. On the other hand, at this track, which is the worst on the calendar for my riding style, two podiums are surely a great achievement and bode well for the rest of the season. Now let’s focus on Mugello and especially on solving the issues on the single-lap performance.”

Martin Retains Championship Lead

Despite missing out on the win on Sunday Jorge Martin still leaves the weekend as the leader in the championship. Martin maintains a 39 point lead over Bagnaia in the championship at the conclusion of the Catalan GP weekend.

After topping FP2 Aleix Espargaro headed into qualifying on a mission to hold the top spot. He did just that fighting off a charging Francesco Bagnaia behind by only 0.013s. The normal front runner and championship leader Jorge Martin was no where to be found in today’s sprint race. Martin finishes a mere P7 in an uncharacteristic start to the race weekend for the Prima Pramac Racing rider.

Prior to the Sprint Martin commented on his feelings after practice on day 1, “It has been a great day today. I felt good and I am confident for tomorrow. The grip is quite low so, because of that, we tried different kinds of setups on the bikes trying to find the best one and to be able to analyze which one might be the best for the rest of the weekend. I am glad about the rhythm I had during the two sessions of the day so I am confident to have a good Saturday.”

Unfortunately that hope turned into demise. Martin never really was able to fire up his tires and by the time he seemingly had the confidence to make a charge everyone else on the grid started to pick up pace as well. Espargaro set the tone early and from then on our everyone else was playing catch up.

Bagnaia Crashes from the Lead

After leading in the closing stages of the sprint Bagnaia crashed from the lead which gifted Espargaro and Marquez a position. Pedro Acosta benefited and snuck in to the podium positions due to the crash. View the crash below.

Full Sprint Race Results Below

Aleix Espargaro just one week after announcing his retirement from MotoGP at the end of the 2024 season has topped the tables in FP2 with an advantage of 0.012s over Francesco Bagnaia. The top five included 3 different manufacturers with Aleix Espargaro riding his Aprilia to lead the pack. Marc Marquez who seemingly had the pace to break into the top 5 crashed in the session but was able to recover the bike and get back to the pits seemingly unharmed. Qualifying is up next.

FP2 Results

MotoGP returns this weekend for the Catalan Grand Prix. With the title race wide open currently valuable points are up for grabs as Jorge Martin continues his charge for the championship. Martin leads two time MotoGP champion Francesco Bagnaia by 38 points heading into the weekend. Bagnaia will desperately want to outscore Martin to cut the lead down. Actions gets started this Friday.

The Full Race Weekend Schedule is Below