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. 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 […]
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