Marc Marquez added his third victory of the season by winning the Great MotoGP Australian Prize at the Phillip Island circuit, despite the efforts Jorge Martin because it wasn’t like that.
Márquez is getting a little closer to the leaders, who are now twenty points away between Jorge Martín and the Italian Francesco Pecco Bagnaia, third in Australia.
Pedro Acosta was the first casualty of the MotoGP race when he was declared ‘unfit’ after the fall he suffered on Saturday in the sprint, in which he hit his shoulder, without suffering any fracture, but with a lot of discomfort, which has advised the Puerto de Mazarrón pilot to rest.
Marc Márquez was not too lucky, as the rear wheel of his motorcycle skidded a lot at the start and while Jorge Martín left like an exhalation, the eight-time world champion had to look for all possible gaps to reach sixth position in the first section of the Australian circuit after having lost numerous places.
Then it was found that the helmet visor protection that he removed just before the start remained on the ground in front of the rear wheel of his motorcycle and that was what caused the exaggerated ‘skid’. of it, which slipped on the plastic.
Martín pushed like a shot and already in the first lap he got four tenths of a second ahead of the Italians Marco Bezzecchi and Bagnaia, with the South African Brad Binder and the Italian Franco Morbidelli after them.
At that time Marc Márquez was sixth, reaching the tail of that quartet pursuer of a solid leader.
In the third lap the Spaniard fulfilled his ‘long lap’ sanction Alex Marquez and in the next one Marco Bezzecchi did it, who was sanctioned for throwing at the end of the straight during the race sprint to Spanish Maverick Viñales.
Márquez, heading to victory
At the same moment and point in which Bezzecchi fulfilled his penalty, turn four, Marc Márquez took advantage of Brad Binder’s mistake, who went long, to overtake him and get into fourth position, at a point where a lap later the Italian went down.
In the hasty braking at the end of the straight, at the beginning of the sixth lap, Marc Márquez already caught up with Morbidelli to be in a podium position and with a few meters of distance from Bagnaia, in addition to starring in the fastest lap of the race and new record with a time of 1:28.056.
Two laps later, on lap eight, Marc Márquez again set a new record by lapping at 1:27.900 to ‘hunt’ the slipstream of the motorcycle of a ‘Pecco’ Bagnaia who remained stable in the differences with respect to Jorge Martín.
At the fastest lap record pace again, Marc Márquez caught up with Bagnaia and stuck to the slipstream of his motorcycle to close the gap with Jorge Martín, who on the eleventh lap He was barely six tenths of a second ahead.
In the twelfth lap of the race, a mistake by Jorge Martín was taken advantage of by Bagnaia and Márquez to overcome him, but the leader of the World Cup regained the first position moments later, with Marc Márquez who took advantage of those moments to surpass Bagnaia and follow in Martín’s wake.
After the warning received, Jorge Martín remained firm in first place, but knowing that Marc Márquez was close in the wake of his motorcycle and ‘Pecco’ Bagnaia tried to keep up with the pace at the head of the race, but he was already running four tenths of a second slower than them.
The battle between Márquez and Martín
Ten laps from the end, on the eighteenth lap, Martín and Márquez already had a two-second advantage over Bagnaia, who maintained another four difference with respect to their chasing group, formed by Morbidelli and also with Enea Bastianini, Brad Binder, Fabio Di Giannantonio and Maverick Viñales.
In front, Marc Márquez stayed close to the slipstream of Jorge Martín’s motorcycle, giving the impression of studying the best moment to surpass the world leader and thus claim his third victory of the season, after those achieved in Motorland Alcañiz and Misano Adriatico.
And so it was that with four laps to go Marc Márquez saw the opportunity and overtook Jorge Martín to lead the race for the first time, but on the Australian straight the world leader took advantage of the power of his bike to regain the position, but again in turn four of the next lap, Márquez regained first place.
The final two laps were truly heart-stopping, because despite risking a fall that would take away all the advantage he had gained over Bagnaia, Jorge Martín did not throw in the towel and tried to recover, without success, the first position, which ended in the hands of the eight-time world champion, with Bagnaia third.
Fourth place went to Fabio Di Giannantonio, Enea Bastianini, Franco Morbidelli, which meant six Ducatis in the first six positions, with Brad Binder’s KTM seventh, ahead of Maverick Viñales, Fabio Quartararo and Raúl Fernández.
