Enea Bastianini reminded the MotoGP front runners that he still has what it takes to top the table today at Chang. In a dominant performance Enea Bastianini topped the Thai grand prix sprint race beating championship leader Jorge martin by just under 1.5 seconds. Despite a better start, Bagnaia lost out on move from Martin in to turn 1 and would eventually settle for P3 in the race. Bagnaia had a bit of an off which saw him drop to P5 momentarily and it was a scrap to get back to the podium places. In the commotion Bastianini put his head down and charge forward forming a gap ahead of the squabble behind.
“It was a great race,” said Bastianini. I took advantage of (Jorge) Martin’s mistake at turn one as I saw he had hit the brakes very late, and I knew he couldn’t make the turn stick. I then tried to pull away a little in the first two-three laps and managed to do so, and from then on things were a lot easier – even though the others were never too far behind for the whole race. In the end we managed to take the win in a much more comfortable way than we expected, even though it’s never easy.”
Martin expressed his frustrations saying “It has been a very difficult race. I made a good start, but at the first turn, I lost a position to avoid an accident. Then, I had to push more than expected and overtake riders like Acosta and Pecco, who are really strong on the brakes, which was complicated. It has been a good Sprint, but I know that tomorrow more riders will improve, and it is essential to start well, keep calm, and do our best.”
Sprint Race Results
Marc Marquez impresses once again with an impressive win at Phillip Island in the Australian grand prix. Maruqez secured his third win of the season. A feat that few though was possible for the veteran and 8 time world champion. “We had a big race today against Martín and we had fun,” said Marquez. “This win is surely a confidence boost and we need to follow on this type of results in the last three events. I had to remove one tear-off at the start because I had a huge fly over it that was preventing me from seeing what was in front of me… and then you all saw what happened. From then on, we had the pace from then on to battle for second place: I gave it a go and when I got close to Jorge, I realized that it was possible to win.”
Marquez leaves the weekend 59 points behind Francesco Bagnaia. With 3 race weekends to go. Marquez realistically has a path forward to fight for the championship. He is currently 79 points behind Jorge Martin. With 3 sprint races and 3 grand prix left there are plenty of points still up for grabs. The MotoGP championship battle has emerged as a three man race at the front. At this point in the season mistakes will be costly.
Bagnaia Losing Ground to Marquez
Bagnaia who seemingly had isolated himself at the front of the championship race with Martin now finds himself threatened by Marquez in the championship points race. Bagnaia who has trailed Martin for most of the season finished finished behind Martin once again. Bagnaia was obviously not happy with the result. “Obviously I’m not happy with the result, but we could have hardly done any better today,” he said. “We managed to improve a little compared to yesterday and I did all I could to stay with Jorge (Martín) and Marc (Márquez) but ended up struggling on corner entry – and they were simply better than us today. The next two circuits on the calendar are usually better for me feeling-wise, and we’ll make sure to be ready.”
MotoGP World Championship Standings After Australia
After securing a marginal pole position Jorge Martin threw down the hammer in the sprint race; finishing ahead of Marc Marquez by 1.5 seconds. As the MotoGP season is winding down to the closing rounds Martin has seemingly turned up the heat a bit. His championship battle with Francesco Bagnaia has been back and forth. However, Bagnaia did him a favor in this race finishing P4. The win meant that Martin extended his championship lead to 16 points headed into Sunday’s Grand Prix.
In the field behind there were multiple incidents the most severe being the collision between Maverick Viñales and Marco Bezzecchi. The riders touched into turn 1. Both riders gained consciousness by the end of the incident. Both riders were summoned to the medical center after the race to determine fitness to continue this weekend in Australia.
Qatar Airways Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix Sprint Results
The Grand Prix Commission confirmed today that the decision has been made to rune 2025 spec machines in 2026 in an effort to maintain a level playing field in the MotoGP championship. The FIM released the following memo.
The battle for the top spot in the 2024 MotoGP championship has been a game of tug o war between Jorge Martin and Francesco Bagnaia. In the Mandalika sprint race Martin crashed from the from the lead and lost out on valuable points that would’ve shut the door on any comeback by Bagnaia this weekend. Martin was however able to recover to P10. Bagnaia’s post race mood was on the opposite end of the spectrum while he celebrated the.
Bagnaia said, “I’m very happy with this win. It wasn’t an easy race, as the track temperature was the highest ever encountered so far at this track. This morning, we managed to make another step forward and in qualifying I understood how to be effective in the first two sectors. I still struggle at turns 15 and 16, but it’s a very tricky point where I almost tucked the front on a couple of occasions. This is why in the race I pushed as hard as I could in the first three sectors, as I knew I wasn’t the fastest rider in the last split. This is a strategy that could have worked only today, so we’ll keep working in the warmup in order to improve some more ahead of the race.”
Enea Bastianini’s finished P2 in the sprint ahead of Marc Maruqez and has opened up the possibility of contending for the championship title race. Martin now holds a 12 point lead over Bagnaia and a 50 point lead over Bastianini. There are enough races for the top of the table to shift in any direction come the final round of the season and the battle for 2024’s championship is heating up. Referring to the race
Bastianini said “It was a good sprint race; too bad for the start and especially for the mistake at turn one, which compromised a bit my chances of winning today. I had a good pace and I was very competitive under braking, and that allowed me to bridge the gap and to overtake a few riders. Tomorrow’s race will definitely be a tough one: Jorge crashed today, but he’ll be very competitive tomorrow. The fact that we’ll likely have to go for the medium rear tire will mix things up a bit further.” Marc Marquez rounded out the top three.
Full Sprint Race Results From Mandalika
Jorge Martin secured pole position in Indonesia in record setting fashion after shattering the lap record and secured pole position for the upcoming Sprint and Grand Prix. Martin was in a world of his own finishing over a half a second ahead of Marco Bezzecchi. Pedro Acosta returned to the top 3 for the Gas Gas MotoGP side. The finish again didn’t do Francesco Bagnaia’s championship hopes any good after he finished fourth and never really challenged for pole position. Similarly where Bagnaia’s teammate found early success in the weekend he too fell short of expectation finishing qualifying P5. Both Ducati Lenovo riders will start on the second row and will lean on a good start to get them back in to contention for tomorrow’s sprint race.
Despite a crash in the session Bastianini walked away from qualifying unscathed.
Qualifying Results
Ducati Lenovo rider Enea Bastianini has found a new swing of form on the track the second half of the 2024 season. Bastianini led practice beating out championship leader Jorge Martin by a slim 0.04s. Bastianini commented on the session, “It was a positive day. The track was a bit dirty this morning, but it improved a lot throughout the day. Obviously the times dropped significantly in the afternoon, but the feeling with the bike was already good from the first session; we then made some adjustments, which worked well. We were strong in the time attack, while the medium rear tyre requires a few laps before getting into temperature. We’re all very close lap-time wise so it won’t be easy tomorrow in qualifying. In any case, I’m very happy with today’s performance.”
P2 finisher Martin also offer his comments, “I’ve felt really good all day. I tried different types of tyres and I feel great. Not having to make any changes to the bike allowed me to focus on the riding. I’m happy with how the day went, and I’m ready for tomorrow”.
Franco Morbidelli finished in third which will be advantageous heading into Q2. Despite finishing 4th Francesco Bagnaia was right there with the front runners with the top 4 being separated by less than a tenth of a second. Qualifying is up next.
Indonesia Practice Results
Sunday was a drama filled race for the world’s premier motorcycle racing class; MotoGP. Ducati Lenovo rider Enea Bastianini lead the effort for Ducati to secure the win and clinch the constructors world championship. The 2024 season has been a battle for Bastinaini but he has found himself in the front pack on more than one occasion this season. His work this year has been a stark contrast to his 2023 campaign where he suffered from a seemingly season ending injury. Bastianini wasn’t done though. His performance in 2024 left fans wondering when his first win of the season might come. Now that its here Bastianini offered his comments.
“This victory is a great achievement, because we built up to a crescendo this weekend. Yesterday we were missing something to battle for the win, but we worked until late in order to put all the pieces together and to find a solution ahead of today’s race, and it worked. Jorge (Martín) was extremely fast throughout the race and there was a moment in which I wasn’t sure if I could have stayed with him, as I started experiencing a bit of vibration at the rear-end. As the laps went by, however, I tried to understand how to minimize the issue. In the final laps, something extra obviously comes out that enables you to battle for the win. In the end, I made my move: when I dove in, Jorge tried to close the door and that forced me to lean a bit, which led to the front-end locking. I tried to rely on the rear as much as I could, while making sure I could make the turn, and it worked.”
Francesco Bagnaia Crashes; Loses Ground to Martin
Francesco Bagnaia’s championship run took a hit this weekend after he crashed out of the grand prix after he lost the front end and slide out during the race. Bagnaia said, “Today simply went the way it did. I was already having some issues with the front locking since the start of the race so even when the rear tyre started to perform with 15 laps in and set the fastest lap of the race two times in a row, I still tried to be as careful as possible, especially under braking. Then, I lost the front as hit the brakes, despite being still in an upright position. It was a strange day no doubt, but we’ll be ready next time.”
MISANO WORLD CIRCUIT MARCO SIMONCELLI, ITALY – SEPTEMBER 22: Francesco Bagnaia crash during the Emilia-Romagna GP at Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli on Sunday September 22, 2024 in Misano Adriatico, Italy. (Photo by Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images)
Jorge Martin increased his championship lead to 29 points after the weekend. Its a bit early to start discussing championship scenarios. Martin was happened with the result. Martin commented saying, “I gave my all to win this race. I am disappointed with how it ended because I led for almost the entire race, and Enea’s overtake was on the limit. Nevertheless, I managed to avoid a crash and consolidate my championship lead. We are now heading into a part of the championship that I love, and I’m really looking forward to it”. Martin benefitted from the points haul while Bagnaia DNF the race.
Emilia Romagna Grand Prix Results
Championship Standings
Francesco Bagnaia bested Jorge Martin in today’s Tissot Sprint race ahead of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. Bagnaia and Martin have traded back and forth blows all season. The two traded leads at the front but Bagnaia was able to hold off a late charge by Martin that saw martin run wide and Bagnaia took advantage. Martin would chase for the remainder of the race. With Bagnaia’s teammate Enea Bastianini finishing in third.
Bagnaia Speaks on the Win
“I did everything to make sure my riding was as close to 100% as possible and luckily I managed to do so,” he said. “Today’s race pace was crazy. Just two weeks ago, to be lapping in the 31.2/3 was already an incredible achievement, while today we were consistently quicker than that. Once again, I didn’t get the best of starts and I found myself also behind Brad (Binder). Once I moved up to second, I found myself with a 0.7secs gap, and it was hard to get the better of Jorge (Martín); without his mistake, it would have been a lot harder to overtake him. I was very quick in that sector, and I would have tried to pass him there anyway. I’m happy because we narrowed the gap down to the lead a bit more, but the most important race awaits us tomorrow and it’ll be key to get a good start and be in the lead from the get-go. I’d like to thank the team for the amazing work done and the fans for being here with us.”
Sprint Race Results
Marc Marquez continues to impress at his Gresini Racing post with yet another win that has sky rocketed Marquez into the championship race discussion. The win marked back to back grand prix victories for the 7 time world champion. Despite not riding for the factory team Marquez has shown that experience can sometimes outweighs performance. It was a mixed conditions race that required the riders to swap bikes. Marquez attributed his win to the correct strategy call by the team to stay out and charge forward.
Marquez said, “Those rain drops helped a lot… Maybe Fausto looked down and gave us a helping hand. I thought I had nothing to lose and gave it all. Honestly, I would have never got back to the pits to change the bike, and surely not that soon. Had it rained for a couple of more laps then maybe… but I chose to follow the instincts of the home riders who stayed out. I can’t say if it’s an open championship again, but we want to continue looking for consistency.”
Martin Gambles and Loses
Unfortunately for Jorge martin his triumph in yesterday’s race ended in todays race as he chose to come in to the pits when provide to be the wrong called and cost him a shot at the win.
Martin would settle for 1 ppoint in P15 which dropped his championship lead down to 7 points as Francesco Bagnaia finish the race P2 and gained ground on Martin this weekend. Martin said, “I was quite comfortable, but it started raining heavily in sectors one, two, and three. For this reason, I decided to change bikes. Now that the race is over, it’s clear that the strategy wasn’t the right one. I’ve learned my lesson, and now it’s time to look ahead”.
Bagnaia’s teammate Enea Bastianini completed the podium in P3 to close out the weekend.
San Marino Grand Prix Results
World Standings After the San Marino Grand Prix