Martin mighty in Misano
The Pramac Ducati of Jorge Martin remained unbeaten at the San Marino Grand Prix with a Sunday cruise, while Marco Bezzecchi and Francesco Bagnaia gritted their way to the podium.
Martin was never threatened and led every lap of the San Marino Grand Prix to complete the perfect weekend and beat Bezzecchi.
Bagnaia collected another heroic podium, just one week after being hospitalised at Catalunya and was in agony post race.
The reigning champion had to fight for it on the golden Ducati, with veteran wildcard Dani Pedrosa coming just a couple of tenths away from a first podium in six years.
For the second year in a row Australia’s Jack Miller crashed at turn four in Misane, this time it was due to a tangle with Ducati’s Michele Pirro.
Pol Espargaro, Joan Mir and Brad Binder also fell under the scorching San Marino sun.
Martin took control into turn one off the start ahead of Bezzecchi but Bagnaia sent it towards turn two and surged into second.
It quickly became a three horse race at the front full of Ducatis with Martin leading Bagnaia and Bezzecchi.
Before too long they were almost a second up the road of the two KTMs with Binder leading Pedrosa, while Miller went from 18th up to 16th on the first lap.
On lap six Bezzecchi had a crack at Bagnaia, but the status quo remained despite swapping places.
During this period Binder was gaining ground on the leading trio, but his charge came to a crashing end at turn 14, promoting Pedrosa to fourth.
Joan Mir joined Binder on the sidelines, having yet another fall this time at turn four.
This was also the scene of Miller’s race-ending incident where he got tangled up with Pirro.
Despite both full-time factory KTMs crashing in as many laps, there was plenty of optimism in the garage as the #26 was turning back the clock.
Within a handful of laps Pedrosa had halved the gap to the top three and fuel hopes of a staggering podium.
However, a mistake on lap 14 meant the deficit between Bezzecchi and Pedrosa ballooned out to a second once again.
The attrition rate was starting to build as Pol Espargaro also had a high-speed fall, which was his fifth for the weekend.
By lap 17 Martin started to stamp his authority, taking no time to pull a second clear of the injured Bagnaia and Bezzecchi.
It only took one more lap for the Pramac Ducati to double the gap to 2s as Bagnaia started to battle.
Bezzecchi was sick of waiting around and snatched second with a calculated move at Quereia.
The reigning champion was struggling to keep up with his rivals and a mistake on lap 23 brought Pedrosa into play.
With two laps to go the gap came down to just two tenths of a second, but the returning veteran could not close in on the current star.
Bagnaia finished third to ensure his championship lead remained intact with Martin still 36 points back ahead of the Indian Grand Prix on September 22-24.
Photo by Gold and Goose / LAT Images
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