Bagnaia goes from zero to hero

One day after crashing from the lead on the last lap of the Sprint, Francesco Bagnaia has reminded the MotoGP field of his class with a masterful ride to Catalan Grand Prix victory over Jorge Martin.

Bagnaia put his Barcelona battles of recent years behind him by hunting down Martin and leaving him for dust with five laps to go, while Marc Marquez soared from 13th to third.

Martin and Bagnaia fought a cat and mouse battle of tyre management across the 24 laps, but the reigning champion was far too strong.

Despite being more than a second back at one point, the Italian hunted down his Spanish rival and cruised past with five laps to go.

The Pramac Ducati rider had no answer as Bagnaia’s pace and tyre life proved overwhelming, winning by 1.7s to jump to second in the standings, while Marquez marked his podium with a special dance on the tyre barriers. 

Rookie Pedro Acosta appeared to have the pace to dream about a famous maiden win, but he crashed out of second place when following Martin’s back wheel.

Turn 10 was the place to be with a number of significant overtakes taking place and also massive moments, including the crashes for both Acosta and Jack Miller, who also threw away an important points result. 

Whilst the Aussie was a DNF, the GasGas rookie sensationally fought back to cling onto a points finish.

Every rider on a medium front, while only Miller, Acosta, Alex and Marc Marquez picked a soft rear with tyre degradation predicted to be a big factor under sunny Spanish skies.

Bagnaia, Acosta and Brad Binder all got good jumps and went into the opening corner side by side for the lead, with the #1 emerging in P1.

Espargaro slumped from pole to fifth, while Fernandez also struggled to utilise Trackhouse’s first front row with Martin shooting into the top four and Miller rising from ninth to sixth.

The championship leader continued his charge at Turn 10 where he snatched a top three spot from Binder.

Miller saw sixth slip away with a mistake at the second tour of the opening corner.

Things settled down until Lap 3 when Acosta launched his first assault on the lead at turn 10.

The rookie did get by, only for Bagnaia to sneak back beneath him with an aggressive switchback where the pair almost rubbed shoulders.

Behind the battling leaders, Miller fell at the same left hander and threw away an important points finish.

When the field next arrived at Turn 10, Acosta was now on the defensive, being picked off by Martin to produce a familiar feel in the top two.

Turn 10 remained a hot spot with Martin using it to complete his charge to the lead by diving down the inside of Bagnaia on the fifth tour.

Having been shown the way, Acosta also dived down the inside of the factory Ducati at the end of the back straight and this time made it stick.

After losing track position, Bagnaia struggled to keep up with the top two and drifted a second behind within two laps.

Fourth also changed hands as Espargaro powered past Binder, while Fernandez also pounced on the KTM within a couple of corners.

All eyes were on the front of the field with Martin setting the pace, but the youthful Acosta looking for a fight, sensing a chance of a maiden win.

However, Acosta pushed too hard, tucked the front and crashed out at Turn 10.

This released Martin, who was now a second clear of the field, while Bagnaia had an even bigger advantage over Espargaro as the riders entered the second half of the race.

With 10 laps to go Bagnaia pulled the deficit down to less than a second for the first time.

It only took another two laps for the #1 to bring that to less than half a second which put the Pramac Ducati rider under pressure for the first time since Acosta’s incident.

By lap 19, Martin had no answer as Bagnaia’s first look at the lead was a successful at Turn 5.

In a heartbeat Bagnaia was the best part of a second up the road and it was game over.

Another rider on the charge was Marc Marquez, who despite starting 13th was now in the top five and chasing down Fernandez. It did not take much for the #93 to pass the Trackhouse leader.

With three to go, Marc Marquez soared into third by blazing past Espargaro on the main straight.

Acosta was also not messing around, having incredibly recovered from his crash to return to the points with 14th.

Enea Bastianini crossed the line ninth but was hurt by numerous long lap penalties and wasted a points finish as a result, while Augusto Fernandez joined Miller on the sidelines.

MotoGP heads to the rolling hills of Tuscany for the Italian Grand Prix on June 2.

Image: Gold and Goose

2024 Catalan Motorcycle Grand Prix results

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