Ducati’s MotoGP world champion Francesco Bagnaia clinched success at the Japanese Grand Prix, dominating the contest from start to finish and narrowing the championship point deficit to leader Jorge Martin to 10 points. Bagnaia’s uninterrupted supremacy in the 24-lap race at Motegi was the eighth victory in the season and puts him in the ranks with Marc Marquez, Jorge Lorenzo, Casey Stoner, and Valentino Rossi as those who have achieved such a feat in a single season.
Initial conditions and resolution with determination
Francesco Bagnaia began the race in the second position, but before the first corner, he got ahead of the polesitter, Pedro Acosta. Acosta made some aggressive overtakes. But Francesco Bagnaia kept his place and led the race, exiting Turn 2. KTM’s Brad Binder, Enea Bastianini, and Marc Marquez were close behind him while starting from 11th on the grid.
Jorge Martin swiftly promoted himself to sixth within the first lap. Acosta was second in the first three laps and fell out at the last corner of lap three in a race incident. This brought Martin closer to Binder and allowed him to overtake him and settle in second place, while Francesco Bagnaia increased his lead to 1.3 seconds.
Intense Battle Between Francesco Bagnaia and Martin
While Francesco Bagnaia dominated the race, it was truly intense when Martin regained his speed and started applying pressure to the leader. This put pressure on him, and by lap 10, Jorge Martin had closed the gap to just 0.6 seconds behind him. But he quickly regained the advantage and extended the gap to more than a second by the 18th lap. After that, Martin started to reduce the margin with the leader and was only 0.9 seconds behind on the 22 laps. But he did not budge and expertly navigated his pace to beat Martin by a margin of 1.189 seconds while accomplishing a Motegi double after his victory in the sprint race on Saturday.
Maguerez Battles Hard to Get Third Place
The last podium place went to an extraordinary performance by Marc Marquez. He overtook Binder on lap five and successfully held off a strong challenge from factory Ducati rider Enea Bastianini during the race’s second half. This was on a weekend that was much needed in what has been a very struggling year for the 8-time world champion Marquez. Bastianini eventually came in fourth, followed by Franco Morbidelli in fifth on the other Pramac Ducati. Binder came in sixth, with Bezzecchi and Di Giannantonio of VR46 coming in seventh and eighth, respectively. Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro and KTM’s Jack Miller locked the top 10 positions.
Many accidents and car failures were reported in the Japanese GP. Pedro Acosta came down to the pits after crashing during the race’s early stages and did not re-emerge until lap 15. Due to crashes, Maverick Vinales, Augusto Fernandez, Alex Marquez, and Joan Mir were out of the race. As mentioned earlier, Alex Marquez crashed with Mir at the end of lap one, and both were taken out; this is under steward inquiry.
Lorenzo Savadori had to retire from his stand-in role at Trackhouse due to mechanical failure, while Takaaki Nakagami took the checkers in 13th place in his last home grand prix as a full-time racer. Luca Marini and Raul Fernandez collected the final point-scoring finishes in 14th and 15th places.
Final Thoughts
As a result of this win, Francesco Bagnaia has significantly closed the gap within the championship, which will see him and Martin make the remaining competitors sweat as they continue to battle it out in the remaining races of the season. As the season approaches its final stages, the question remains: who will be proving themselves to capture the 2024 MotoGP world championship?
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