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Lewis Duncan

MotoGP San Marino GP: Martin dominates to ignite title charge

Having led from start to finish in Saturday's sprint, Martin did the same from pole in Sunday's full-distance race at Misano.

Capitalising on the injuries for championship leader Francesco Bagnaia and VR46's Marco Bezzecchi from their respective Barcelona crashes, Martin's second double of the season has put him just 36 points behind in the standings.

Pedrosa piled immense pressure on Bagnaia in the grand prix but came up just 0.669 seconds from a first podium since his last win in 2017 in Valencia.

It marked his second fourth of the weekend having narrowly missed the podium in the sprint.

Marc Marquez's gamble on a soft rear tyre paid off with his best Sunday result since Malaysia last year in seventh.

Martin grabbed the holeshot from pole on his Pramac-run Ducati as Bagnaia – riding a yellow one-off livery on his GP23 - carved his way into second ahead of Bezzecchi.

KTM's Pedrosa slotted into fourth despite a big rear moment on the direction change from Turn 1 to Turn 2, though he would soon swap places with team-mate Brad Binder.

Martin, Bagnaia and Bezzecchi quickly scampered away from the KTMs and ran line astern in the opening tours of the 27-lap race.

Bagnaia came close to pulling a move on Martin at the final corner on the first lap, but couldn't quite get close enough.

Bezzecchi would take second from Bagnaia for the first time on lap six at Turn 8, but relinquished the place when he ran wide at Turn 10.

Binder began to close in on the top three in the early stages but crashed at Turn 14 on lap eight, releasing Pedrosa into fourth.

Pedrosa closed down the trio ahead of him, getting the gap as low as six tenths at the end of lap 12, before it grew again.

Lap 17 proved to be the decisive moment of the race, as Martin began to up his pace and pull away from Bagnaia.

Getting his lead up to half a second at the end of the 16th tour, Martin's lead grew to 1.1s next time around and then 1.9s on lap 19 as Bagnaia faded.

Bezzecchi eased on through at Turn 8 on the factory Ducati rider on lap 19 to take second, with Bagnaia forced to fend off a resurgent Pedrosa in the closing stages.

Martin's lead was closed across the final tours as he controlled his pace, getting to the chequered flag 1.3s clear of Bezzecchi.

Despite Pedrosa's best efforts, Bagnaia held the final podium spot by 0.669s, while Maverick Vinales was a lonely fifth on his factory Aprilia.

Pedrosa's result on Sunday means he has overtaken former Honda team-mate Marc Marquez in the championship by one point, having contested just two grand prix weekends in 2023.

Miguel Oliveira took sixth on his RNF Aprilia ahead of Marc Marquez and RNF team-mate Raul Fernandez, while VR46's Luca Marini and Pramac's Johann Zarco rounded out the top 10.

Alex Marquez slid out of the top 10 late on to 11th on his Gresini Ducati ahead of Barcelona sprint and GP winner Aleix Espargaro, the Aprilia rider paying dearly for a poor launch from sixth.

The final points went to Yamaha's Fabio Quartararo in 13th, Binder in 14th after remounting from his crash, and the sister Yamaha of Franco Morbidelli.

Pol Espargaro (Tech3) crashed out of the race, as did Honda's Joan Mir, while KTM's Jack Miller appeared to have been collected by Ducati wildcard Michele Pirro at Turn 4 on lap 10.

The incident will be investigated after the race.

 
 
         
Driver Info
 
 
 
   
Cla Rider # Bike Laps Time Interval km/h Retirement Points
1 Spain J. Martin Pramac Racing 89 Ducati 27 -       25
2 Italy M. Bezzecchi Team VR46 72 Ducati 27 +1.350 1.350     20
3 Italy F. Bagnaia Ducati Team 1 Ducati 27 +3.812 2.462     16
4 Spain D. Pedrosa Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 26 KTM 27 +4.481 0.669     13
5 Spain M. Viñales Aprilia Racing Team 12 Aprilia 27 +10.510 6.029     11
6 Portugal M. Oliveira RNF Racing 88 Aprilia 27 +12.274 1.764     10
7 Spain M. Marquez Repsol Honda Team 93 Honda 27 +13.576 1.302     9
8 Spain R. Fernández RNF Racing 25 Aprilia 27 +14.091 0.515     8
9 Italy L. Marini Team VR46 10 Ducati 27 +14.982 0.891     7
10 France J. Zarco Pramac Racing 5 Ducati 27 +15.484 0.502     6
11 Spain A. Marquez Gresini Racing 73 Ducati 27 +15.702 0.218     5
12 Spain A. Espargaro Aprilia Racing Team 41 Aprilia 27 +15.878 0.176     4
13 France F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing 20 Yamaha 27 +15.898 0.020     3
14 South Africa B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 33 KTM 27 +23.778 7.880     2
15 Italy F. Morbidelli Yamaha Factory Racing 21 Yamaha 27 +24.579 0.801     1
16 Spain A. Fernandez Tech 3 37 KTM 27 +31.230 6.651      
17 Italy F. Di Giannantonio Gresini Racing 49 Ducati 27 +32.537 1.307      
18 Germany S. Bradl Honda World Superbike Team 6 Honda 27 +35.330 2.793      
19 Japan T. Nakagami Team LCR 30 Honda 27 +43.601 8.271      
dnf Spain P. Espargaro Tech 3 44 KTM 15       Retirement  
dnf Spain J. Mir Repsol Honda Team 36 Honda 10       Retirement  
dnf Australia J. Miller Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 43 KTM 9       Retirement  
dnf Italy M. Pirro Ducati Team 51 Ducati 9       Retirement  
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