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Autosport

Sport

MotoGP Valencia GP: Bagnaia wins title after Martin crashes into Marquez

Bagnaia Valencia Marc Marquez Ducati Honda

Bagnaia and Martin came into the championship decider in Valencia split by 14 points after the latter won the sprint on Saturday.

Ducati rider Bagnaia only needed to finish fifth to seal the deal, and started from pole following a penalty for poleman Maverick Vinales after he ignored the meatball flag in warm-up for a technical issue.

Bagnaia took the lead off the line, with Martin launching up to second from sixth into Turn 2 on the opening lap.

The pair ran close until Martin ran off at Turn 1 when he outbraked himself at the start of lap three, sending him down to eighth.

On lap six it all ended for Martin when he collided with Honda’s Marc Marquez on the eight-time world champion’s final appearance for the team while battling for fifth.

Martin tapped the rear of the Honda as he tried to overtake at Turn 4, sending Marquez into a nasty highside while the Pramac rider went down himself.

Bagnaia could not be beaten in the championship, making him the first Ducati rider in history to win two MotoGP titles and the first back-to-back champion since Marquez in 2019.

Marc Marquez, Repsol Honda Team, Jorge Martin, Pramac Racing crash (Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images)

With Martin crashing out of the race and not winning the championship, it is unlikely that he will be promoted to the factory team for 2024.

When Martin crashed out, Bagnaia lost the lead to KTM’s Brad Binder when he looked to see what happened behind him.

Jack Miller on the sister KTM would follow through into second on lap seven and would inherit the lead when team-mate Binder ran off at Turn 11 on lap 14.

Binder dropped to sixth but would recover into the podium fight in the latter stages, while Miller crashed out on lap 19 at Turn 10 while he lead by almost a second.

This released Bagnaia back into the lead, though he would continue to be shadowed by Pramac’s Johann Zarco until the penultimate lap when Gresini’s Fabio Di Giannantonio – who started 11th – scythed through on the Frenchman at Turn 11.

Di Giannantonio tried on several occasions to find a way through on Bagnaia, but the world champion held firm to take his seventh grand prix victory of the season by just 0.176s.

After the race Di Giannantonio was given a three-second penalty for breaching the tyre pressure rule, dropping him from second to fourth and promoting Zarco to second and Binder onto the podium.

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

RNF Aprilia’s Raul Fernandez took fifth ahead of Gresini’s Alex Marquez, as Franco Morbidelli’s final Yamaha race ended with him in seventh, while Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro, Honda-bound Luca Marini and Vinales rounded out the top 10.

An ill Fabio Quartararo was 11th on the sister factory Yamaha, with LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami, RNF stand-in Lorenzo Savadori and Tech3’s Pol Espargaro – who crashed late on – were the last finishers down to 14th.

LCR Honda’s Alex Rins, Ducati’s Enea Bastianini, Tech3’s Augusto Fernandez and VR46’s Marco Bezzecchi also crashed out of the race.

Marc Marquez was taken to the medical centre after his collision with Martin, but quickly returned to his Honda garage having seemingly escape serious injury.

MotoGP Valencia GP - Race results

Driver Info

Cla	Rider	#	Bike	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Retirement	Points
1	F. Bagnaia Ducati Team	1	Ducati	27	-				25
2	F. Di Giannantonio Gresini Racing	49	Ducati	27	+0.176 0.176	0.176			20
3	J. Zarco Pramac Racing	5	Ducati	27	+0.360 0.360	0.184			16
4	B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	33	KTM	27	+2.347 2.347	1.987			13
5	R. Fernández RNF Racing	25	Aprilia	27	+4.636 4.636	2.289			11
6	A. Marquez Gresini Racing	73	Ducati	27	+4.708 4.708	0.072			10
7	F. Morbidelli Yamaha Factory Racing	21	Yamaha	27	+4.736 4.736	0.028			9
8	A. Espargaro Aprilia Racing Team	41	Aprilia	27	+8.014 8.014	3.278			8
9	L. Marini Team VR46	10	Ducati	27	+9.486 9.486	1.472			7
10	M. Viñales Aprilia Racing Team	12	Aprilia	27	+10.556 10.556	1.070			6
11	F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing	20	Yamaha	27	+12.001 12.001	1.445			5
12	T. Nakagami Team LCR	30	Honda	27	+21.695 21.695	9.694			4
13	L. Savadori RNF Racing	32	Aprilia	27	+43.297 43.297	21.602			3
14	P. Espargaro Tech 3	44	KTM	25	+2 Laps 35.223	2 Laps			2
dnf	A. Rins Team LCR	42	Honda	19				Retirement
dnf	J. Miller Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	43	KTM	18				Accident
dnf	E. Bastianini Ducati Team	23	Ducati	9				Accident
dnf	A. Fernandez Tech 3	37	KTM	9				Accident
dnf	M. Marquez Repsol Honda Team	93	Honda	5				Accident
dnf	J. Martin Pramac Racing	89	Ducati	5				Accident
dnf	M. Bezzecchi Team VR46	72	Ducati	0				Accident
View full results