MotoGP San Marino GP: Marquez storms to victory, Martin makes bike swap blunder

Marc Marquez surged into the lead during a brief rain shower and held on to win the MotoGP San Marino Grand Prix from Francesco Bagnaia, as Jorge Martin made a premature bike swap that left him 15th.

With spots of rain on the starting grid, humid and cloudy conditions briefly delivered substantial rain after seven laps of the Misano race, leading to half a dozen riders pitted to change motorcycles, including world championship leader Martin who had been running second on the Pramac Ducati.

But Gresini Ducati’s Marquez stayed on track, chased and passed Bagnaia and then broke the Italian’s challenge with the fastest lap of the race in the closing stages to storm to a second consecutive victory.

The threat of heavy rain never delivered which allowed a dry line to persist, forcing Martin to re-enter the pits for his original race bike with slick tyres.

The Spaniard classified 15th for the final point and his margin at the top of the standings shrunk to just seven over Bagnaia.

“For me the most important was the speed after the rain,” said Marquez of his 61st MotoGP win. “This one is for the team Gresini,” he added, having carried his late team owner’s dedicatory championship livery at Misano.

“Today, more than second was impossible, Marc was in too good shape,” conceded Bagnaia.

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team (Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images)

In third was Ducati’s Enea Bastianini who had a decent gap to KTM’s Brad Binder as the first non-Ducati rider past the line. Local rider and VR46 racer Marco Bezzecchi atoned for his error in the Saturday sprint to take fifth place.

Gresini’s Alex Marquez ran as high as fourth but then suffered with traction problems and faded late on to sixth, just ahead of Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo in seventh and KTM’s Jack Miller in eighth.

VR46’s Fabio Di Giannantonio defied weakness and pain from his right shoulder to score ninth and KTM’s wildcard test rider Pol Espargaro was 10th.

Trackhouse Racing’s Miguel Oliveira was the first of the Aprilias to the finish in 11th ahead of LCR Honda’s Johann Zarco.

GasGas Tech3’s Pedro Acosta started strongly, fighting in the top five in the opening laps, but had a near-escape on the second lap when he clipped the rear of Franco Morbidelli’s Pramac Ducati and lost his right aero, before falling two laps later.

The flag-to-flag status allowed him to enter for a second bike but he was far behind in 17th.

Franco Morbidelli was another early faller, as he went down on the on entry to Turn 3 in the opening phases of the race when the rain briefly intensified.

Jorge Martin, Pramac Racing (Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images)

Just like Martin, Yamaha’s Alex Rins, Aprilia duo Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Vinales plus Trackhouse Racing’s Raul Fernandez all entered the pitlane twice due to early bike swaps which put them out of the points.

The stomach virus that sidelined Repsol Honda’s Joan Mir appeared to also prevent team-mate Luca Marini from starting the race as he was ruled out with a similar complaint on Sunday morning.

Misano will see more MotoGP action tomorrow for the final mid-season one-day test of 2024. The championship will then stay parked at the Rimini track in preparation for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix from 20-22 September.

MotoGP San Marino Grand Prix - Race results

Main Information Additional Data Additional Data Driver Info Driver Info

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Main Information Additional Data 1  -  2
Cla	Rider	#		Bike	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Retirement	Points
1	M. Marquez Gresini Racing	93		Ducati	27	41'52.083		163.5		25
2	F. Bagnaia Ducati Team	1		Ducati	27	+3.102 41'55.185	3.102	163.3		20
3	E. Bastianini Ducati Team	23		Ducati	27	+5.428 41'57.511	2.326	163.1		16
4	B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	33		KTM	27	+14.185 42'06.268	8.757	162.5		13
5	M. Bezzecchi Team VR46	72		Ducati	27	+16.725 42'08.808	2.540	162.4		11
6	A. Marquez Gresini Racing	73		Ducati	27	+17.582 42'09.665	0.857	162.3		10
7	F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing	20		Yamaha	27	+17.642 42'09.725	0.060	162.3		9
8	J. Miller Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	43		KTM	27	+19.327 42'11.410	1.685	162.2		8
9	F. Di Giannantonio Team VR46	49		Ducati	27	+27.946 42'20.029	8.619	161.7		7
10	P. Espargaro Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	44		KTM	27	+38.781 42'30.864	10.835	161.0		6
11	M. Oliveira Trackhouse Racing Team	88		Aprilia	27	+46.386 42'38.469	7.605	160.5		5
12	J. Zarco Team LCR	5		Honda	27	+1'02.637 42'54.720	16.251	159.5		4
13	T. Nakagami Team LCR	30		Honda	27	+1'10.717 43'02.800	8.080	159.0		3
14	S. Bradl HRC Test Team	6		Honda	27	+1'17.547 43'09.630	6.830	158.6		2
15	J. Martin Pramac Racing	89		Ducati	26	+1 Lap 42'10.721	1 Lap	156.3		1
16	M. Viñales Aprilia Racing Team	12		Aprilia	26	+1 Lap 42'11.570	0.849	156.2
17	P. Acosta Tech 3	31		KTM	26	+1 Lap 42'24.712	13.142	155.4
18	R. Fernández Trackhouse Racing Team	25		Aprilia	26	+1 Lap 42'41.158	16.446	154.4
19	A. Rins Yamaha Factory Racing	42		Yamaha	26	+1 Lap 42'50.509	9.351	153.8
dnf	A. Espargaro Aprilia Racing Team	41		Aprilia	14	+13 Laps 23'50.259	12 Laps	148.9	Retirement
dnf	F. Morbidelli Pramac Racing	21		Ducati	6	+21 Laps 9'18.531	8 Laps	163.4	Accident
dnf	A. Fernandez Tech 3	37		KTM	6	+21 Laps 9'28.503	9.972	160.5	Accident
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