MotoGP: Zarco Finally Takes Maiden Victory at Phillip Island

Everyone loves MotoGP at Phillip Island but, today, no one loves it more than Johann Zarco. The Australian track has given us some historic races over the years and today was no exception.

After 258 races in MotoGP, Johann Zarco has won his maiden race. It was a stunning performance from the Frenchman as he fought his way back from a poor start and calculated the final laps to perfection.

However, it wasn’t all joy in the Prima Pramac garage as their championship contender, Jorge Martin, lost a comfortable lead on the final lap. He dropped back from 1st to 5th as his gamble of running on soft tires failed to pay off. He spent 20 of the 27 laps with a 3+ second lead but wasn’t able to hold off the chasing pack.

As Martin’s championship hopes faded, Pecco Bagnaia came up in 2nd place. He remained within the chasing pack for most of the race and made a stunning move with only a few corners remaining. He will certainly be celebrating extending his championship lead when it looked to likely that this wouldn’t be the case.

The final podium place was taken by Fabio DiGiannantonio who is fighting for a place on the MotoGP grid next year. This maiden podium couldn’t have come at a better time and his aggressive, confident riding through the race, will have undoubtedly helped his cause.

The race was packed with drama from start to finish, with big moves and plenty of overtakes happening up and down the grid. It is certainly a race that will be talked about for years to come but its effect on the final championship result are yet to be known.

Image Credit: MotoGP
AS IT HAPPENED

Jorge Martin and Brad Binder, starting from 1st and 2nd respectively, flew off the line and quickly put clean air between them and the rest of the field. Despite Binder pulling up alongside Martin, it was the Prima Pramac machine that was quicker and able to keep the lead. Pecco Bagnaia then slotted himself in to 3rd. Jack Miller, the home hero, had a great start going from 8th on the grid to 4th.

It was a tricky start for Marc Marquez who slipped back from 7th to 10th, as well as Johann Zarco who dropped from 5th to 8th.

Martin was quick to pull a gap out between himself and Binder. Meanwhile, in to turn 11, Miller made a move up the inside of Bagnaia to take 3rd away from the championship leader. However, on the following lap, Miller goes wide and drops back to 6th. This allowed Fabio DiGiannantonio and Marquez to gain positions.

All this battling allows Binder to pull a 1.2 second gap over Bagnaia in 3rd. Martin was then a further 0.5s down the road.

In to turn 2 on lap 3, DiGiannantonio makes an aggressive move to steal 3rd place from Bagnaia. Further back on the same lap, Marquez goes wide thanks to pressure from Zarco. This lets through Zarco, who is now up to 5th and Miller, who is up to 6th. Marquez remains close behind Miller but isn’t able to get back past.

With drama unfolding up and down the field, the leading trio of Martin, Binder and DiGiannantonio are all enjoying comfortable gaps. Behind them is where the drama is unfolding. It seems like Bagnaia is riding slower than others and that sees him backing up the pack somewhat.

The battles between 4th and 10th are hotting up and, on lap 6, there are moves happening up and down the field. Zarco makes his way past Marquez for 5th, Aleix Espargaro takes 7th from Miller and Marco Bezzecchi takes 9th away from Alex Marquez. Zarco continues battling with Marc Marquez throughout the lap, with the pair jostling back and forth. Eventually, it is Zarco who comes out on top and instantly sets his sights on Bagnaia in 4th.

A few laps later and there seemed to be spots of rain falling across the track. It isn’t heavy enough to affect the riders but it was certainly visible on their visors. By this point, Martin was now leading by 2.4 seconds.

On lap 11, Joan Mir crashed out of 15th place. Going in to turn 4, he bumped in to Luca Marini and ended up in the gravel. The incident was reviewed by the stewards deemed that no further action was necessary.

The following lap and the battle behind the leading pack continues. Espargaro gets past Marquez for 7th and, a few corners later, Miller makes a similar move. This pushes Marquez back down to 8th.

On lap 13, turn 4 takes another victim as Augusto Fernandez slides out of contention.

Bagnaia, by lap 15, is the fastest rider on the field and catching up to DiGiannantonio. However, with Zarco breathing down his neck, the reigning champion is forced to turn his attention to defending and that allows DiGiannantonio to pull a 1 second lead over his rivals.

With rubber flying off everyone’s tires – even the medium tires – Martin’s lap times were dropping significantly. However, he had been able to maintain a steady gap. Just behind, and despite being close on his tail for a few laps, it wasn’t until lap 19 when DiGiannantonio was able to get past Binder for 2nd. Their battle allows Bagnaia to close the gap and he is now hot on the tail of Binder.

With DiGiannantonio now in second, he gets his head down and starts to chase down Martin in the lead. He quickly brings down the gap from 3.4 seconds to 2.8, and brings Binder (in 3rd), Bagnaia (in 4th) and Zarco (in 5th) along with him.

On the following lap, the gap is cut by a further 0.3 seconds and DiGiannantonio has even managed to pull out a 0.5 second lead over Binder.

On lap 22, Zarco takes 4th place away from Bagnaia – he came up alongside the Italian on the start-finish straight and had shut the door on him but turn 1. At the same time, Martin reacts to the mounting threat behind him and stabilises the gap – DiGiannantonio is now no longer closing in on him.

The following lap, Binder is able to pull up alongside DiGiannantonio and regain 2nd place. It’s Binder who now significantly closes the gap at the front and, within 2 laps, this is reduced to less than 1.2 seconds.

On lap 26, Zarco is able to get past Binder for 2nd place. The attack forces him slightly wide and as the pack bunches up, Binder ends up dropping from 2nd to 5th. Now, the chasing pack are just 0.4 seconds behind Martin.

On the final lap of the race, we have an exciting 5-way battle for the win with Martin in 1st, Zarco 2nd, Bagnaia 3rd and DiGiannantonio 4th. But Zarco is able to pull away from Bagnaia, leaving him vulnerable to DiGiannantonio who makes his move up to 3rd. Zarco then makes a move for the lead, which he times to perfection. He brings Bagnaia with him who makes a stunning move for 2nd place. The chaos lasts for a few final corners, in which Martin drops from 1st to 3rd.

As the checkered flag falls, it’s Zarco who claims the victory, ahead of Bagnaia in 2nd and DiGiannantonio in 3rd. Just behind them, on the final straight, Martin loses 4th place to Binder. Bezzecchi is the “best of the rest” in 6th, whilst Miller snatches 7th place away from Espargaro on the line.

FULL RESULTS
1 Johann Zarco Prima Pramac
2 Pecco Bagnaia Ducati
3 Fabio DiGiannantonio Gresini
4 Brad Binder Red Bull KTM
5 Jorge Martin Prima Prama
6 Marco Bezzecchi Mooney VR46
7 Jack Miller Red Bull KTM
8 Aleix Espargaro Aprilia
9 Alex Marquez Gresini
10 Enea Bastianini Ducati
11 Maverick Vinales Aprilia
12 Luca Marini Mooney VR46
13 Miguel Oliveira CryptoDATA RNF
14 Fabio Quartararo Yamaha
15 Marc Marquez Repsol Honda
16 Raul Fernandez CryptoDATA RNF
17 Franco Morbidelli Yamaha
18 Pol Espgararo GASGAS Tech3
19 Takaaki Nakagami LCR Honda

DNFs = Augusto Fernandez (GASGASG Tech 3), Joan Mir (Repsol Honda)

CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
1st Pecco Bagnaia 366 points
2nd Jorge Martin 339 points
3rd Marco Bezzecchi 293 points
4th Brad Binder 224 points
5th Johann Zarco 187 points

Feature Image Credit: MotoGP

MotoGP: Martin Takes Breathtaking Win In Germany

Sachensring has gifted us a remarkable race this weekend between our two championship contenders. The battle lasted for the entirety of the race, culminated in last-lap contact, and ended with our 4 different race winner across 7 races,

For the first time in over 2 years, Jorge Martin can enjoy the view from the top step of the podium after winning the German GP. It might be only his second victory in the premier class but he laid down a stunning performance to hold off the attack from reigning champion, Pecco Bagnaia. He eventually crossed the line a mere 0.6s ahead of Bagnaia to add 25 points to his championship hopes.

Despite starting in pole position, Bagnaia was forced to settle for 2nd today. He sat at the front of the field for much of the early stages of the race but soon found himself in a fierce battle with Martin.

When Martin took the lead for the first time on lap 3, he was setting blisteringly fast lap times that matched the pace we saw in Saturday’s qualifying. This allowed him to pull out a comfortable lead of 0.5s, after leading for just one lap. He then continued to lead until lap 21 when Bagnaia was able to sneak past him. However, he wasn’t able to pull away by much and Martin stayed hot on his tail before regaining the lead at the final sector of lap 24.

With the lap counter rapidly ticking down, thanks to the shortest track of the year, Bagnaia was achingly close to Martin’s rear wheel. He didn’t let the Spanish rider out of his side and stayed hot on his tail. That was until the penultimate lap when Bagnaia made an uncharacteristic mistake and bumped Martin’s rear wheel. The impact of this contact saw Bagnaia drop back and almost ended his hopes of a race win. He had just one final lap to close the gain and regain the lead – he fought as hard as he could but simply couldn’t get close enough. He made a run on Martin over the finish line but Martin managed to stay 0.064s ahead to take the win.

Image Credit: @DucatiCorse on Twitter

Joining them on the podium was Johan Zarco on the Prima Pramac machine. The Frenchman is becoming quite accustomed to finishing races in 3rd place. This is the third time in a row he has crossed the line in 3rd and tasted champagne on the podium.

Zarco wasn’t able to fight for 1st or 2nd today as he simply wasn’t able to catch the leading pair. This was despite setting a number of fastest laps in the middle of the race.

Brad Binder was on track to take 3rd after fighting his way up to that position and passing Luca Marini. However, on turn 8 of lap 19, one of the fastest corners on the track, Binder lost control of the bike at the corner entry and went wide. When he tried to save it, he was already in the gravel and he came off the bike with a hard hit. Shortly after he limped off the circuit, he was taken to the medical centre for a check.

After his battle with Binder for that final podium spot, Marini then entered a hot battle with his VR46 teammate, Marco Bezzecchi. In the end, it was Bezzecchi who came out on top and the pair finished in 4th and 5th.

Just behind them, finishing the day in 6th, was Jack Miller. In typical Miller fashion, he started the race incredibly well and quickly got the holeshot on Bagnaia. He lead the first lap before, on lap 2, facing a tank slapper at turn 11. This let the rest of the field catch up to the Aussie and we almost had 4 abreast in to turn 12. In the space of two corners, Miller was shuffled back from 1st to 4th.

It was an enough harder day for Maverick Vinales who was unable to finish the race after his engine went bang on lap 8. He went back to the garage shaking his head – it was a weekend that capped off a recent run of poor performance for Aprilia.

Fabio Quartararo, who won here last year, finished way down in 13th, with his teammate Franco Morbidelli just ahead of him in 12th. But this year, 8 of the top 9 bikes were Ducati, showing just how much progress they have made in the last 12 months.

Overall, the pace was so incredibly fast today that the whole race was 20 seconds faster than last year’s German GP – an astonishing race all round.

Full Standings
1 Jorge Martin Prima Pramac
2 Pecco Bagnaia Lenovo Ducati
3 Johann Zarco Prima Pramac
4 Marco Bexxecchi Mooney VR46
5 Luca Marini Mooney VR46
6 Jack Miller Red Bull KTM
7 Alex Marquez Gresini
8 Enea Bastianini Ducati Lenovo
9 Fabio Di Giannantonio Gresini
10 Miguel Oliveira CryptoDATA RNF
11 Augusto Fernandez GASGAS Tech3
12 Franco Morbidelli Monster Energy Yamaha
13 Fabio Quarataro Monster Energy Yamaha
14 Takaaki Nakagami LCR Honda
15 Raul Fernandez CryptoDATA RNF
16 Aleix Espargaro Aprilia
17 Jonas Folger GASGAS Tech3

DNFs: Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM), Maverick Vinales (Aprilia)

Championship Standings
1 Pecco Bagnaia 160 points
2 Jorge Martin 144 points
3 Marco Bezzecchi 126 points
4 Johann Zarco 109 points
5 Brad Binder 96 points

Feature Image Credit: MotoGP

MotoGP: Bagnaia Tops Off Perfect Weekend in Mugello With A Race Win

After taking pole position and a sprint race win, Pecco Bagnaia has rounded out his home race weekend with a win on Sunday. He took a dominant win, leading every lap of the race after overcoming a short early challenge from Jack Miller. He eventually came over the line 1.067 seconds ahead of his nearest competitor.

The Italian rider, celebrating his third race win of the season, made his way to the Bagnaia Fan Club grandstand to enjoy an alfresco hot dog – a very old-school celebration for the reigning champion!

Bagnaia has been able to extend his lead at the top of the championship standings, after a difficult weekend for Marco Bezzecchi, who wasn’t able to make his way any higher than 8th today.

Joining him on the podium were both Prima Pramac riders, Jorge Martin in 2nd and Johann Zarco in 3rd. The veteran Frenchman had to fight hard for a podium today, coming through from 9th on the grid and then battling hard with Luca Marini for much of the latter stages of the race.

After sharing Parc Ferme together, for the first time ever, after qualifying on Saturday, the Marquez brothers faced a far more difficult day today with both Marc and Alex ending up in the gravel. The first crash was from Marc whilst running in 4th. He went down at turn 15 on lap 6 after running a little too wide when chasing down Marini who was running in 3rd. Then, on lap 15, Alex went down at turn 2 whilst running in 3rd and facing a huge amount of pressure from Marini just behind him.

It was also a tricky day for Miller who, despite flying off the start line and leading the race into the first corner, was eventually shuffled back and had to settle for 7th. Fabio Quartararo has really been nowhere this weekend, failing to make it out of Q1, settling for 10th in the sprint race and then, today, finishing the race in 11th.

As It Happened

As the riders went out for their warm-up lap, one of the grandstands could be seen holding red and white cards that spelt “Ducati”. There was certainly a lot of expectation in the air and the crowd were hoping to see their first home-grown winner of the day.

As the lights went out and the race got started, Jack Miller was the rider to get the best start and before the grid had even passed the pit lane exit, he was leading the field. The glory was short-lived as Pecco Bagnaia was back ahead by the following corner.

Jorge Martin was also quick to make moves in the field, flying from his starting place of 6th up to 3rd.

As the first lap ended, with had Bagnaia in the lead, followed by Miller in 2nd, Martin in 3rd, Luca Marini in 4th, Marc Marquez in 5th and Alex Marquez in 6th.

Although things were quickly changing up and down the pack – the most significant move came when Martin took 2nd place away from Miller. Marini tried to follow the Prima Pramac rider through, and Miller and Marini then battling hard for 3rd. This battle let Martin break away ahead of them and he quickly built a 1 second lead over the fighting pair.

By this point in the race, the end of the second lap, Bagnaia already had a 0.4s lead over the rest of the field – he was exactly where he wanted to be, out in clear air and controlling the field with ease.

On the third lap, Marc Marquez seemingly came out of nowhere to make a stunning move that saw him overtake three other bikes. In the same move, his brother Alex Marquez lost control of his bike and in an attempt to stay upright, nearly took Miller out of the race. Miller was quick to show his frustrations and the pair were soon locked in to a tough battle, swapping and changing positions at almost every corner.

At lap 5, Johann Zarco was behind Brad Binder with the pair fighting hard for 7th place. He eventually bested the South African and, on the start-finish straight at the start of lap 6, the pair flew past Miller and shuffled him back down to 8th.

It was shortly after this move, at turn 15 of lap 6, that Marc Marquez ended up in the gravel thanks to going a little wide when trying to take 3rd away from Marini. He was clearly pushing hard on a seemingly mediocre bike and his frustrations were clear for everyone to see.

This gave Marini some breathing room as Marc Marquez was very hot on his tail. However, he was then being followed by the younger Alex Marquez who is an equally ferocious competitor.

It was at this point that everything seemed to settle down across the grid with the only moves coming from Fabio Quartararo, who moved up to 12th on lap 9, and Alex Marquez tussling with Marini for 3rd as well as Zarco starting to close in on Marini for 4th.

At lap 15, the second Marquez brother ended up in the kitty litter with Alex Marquez going down at at turn 2 – it seemed that the pressure he was put under by Marini just became too much for him.

Everyone’s attention then turned to Zarco who was trying hard to claim the final podium spot away from Marini. He made the slip stream work perfectly, getting close behind the VR46 machine, but couldn’t seem to make a move work. That was until lap 18 when a tough battle between the pair ended with Zarco finally on top.

All this battling allowed Martin and Bagnaia to pull away from the field, with Martin 1.9 seconds ahead and Bagnaia a further 1.3 seconds ahead of him.

Full Results
1st Pecco Bagnaia Lenovo Ducati
2nd Jorge Martin Prima Pramac
3rd Johann Zarco Prima Pramac
4th Luca Marini Mooney VR46
5th Brad Binder Red Bull KTM
6th Aleix Espargaro Aprilia
7th Jack Miller Red Bull KTM
8th Marco Bezzecchi Mooney VR46
9th Enea Bastianini Lenovo Ducati
10th Franco Morbidelli Monster Energy Yamaha
11th Fabio Quartararo Monster Energy Yamaha
12th Maverick Vinales Aprilia
13th Takaaki Nakagami LCR Honda
14th Fabio Di Giannantonio Gresini
15th Augusto Fernandez GASGAS Tech 3
16th Michele Pirro Aruba.it
17th Raul Fernandez CryptoDATA RNF
18th Lorenzo Savadori Aprilia
19th Jonas Folger GASGAS Tech 3

DNFs: Miguel Oliveira (CrypotDATA RNF), Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda), Alex Marquez (Gresini)

Championship Standings
1st Pecco Bagnaia 131 points
2nd Marco Bezzecchi 110 points
3rd Jorge Martin 107 points
4th Brad Binder 92 points
5th Johann Zarco 88 points

Feature Image Credit: MotoGP

MotoGP: Bezzecchi Wins 1000th MotoGP Race at Le Mans

A crash-filled French GP saw only 13 riders meet the chequered flag. There were hard-fought battles up and down the field and plenty of podium celebrations for our top three riders.

Marco Bezzecchi has taken his second race win of the season, celebrating MotoGP’s 1,000th race from the top step of the podium. He was in a class of his own today, starting from 7th before hitting the front at the mid-point of the race and eventually coming home over 4 seconds ahead of his nearest rival.

He was joined on the podium by both Prima Pramac riders, with Jorge Martin 2nd and Johann Zarco in 3rd, much to the delight of his home crowd.

Martin had to fight hard to earn that 2nd place today, fighting with Marc Marquez for much of the race. The pair were jostling and fighting at every corner with Marquez often coming out on top. It was a magnificent defence considering he has been out of action for the last three races due to an injury. However, on lap 26, with just two and a half laps remaining, Marquez could no longer keep the bike upright and he slid out as Museum Corner whilst trying to make the cut back on Martin.

Zarco was able to capitalise on the drama and the crashes around him, keeping his nose clean and quietly making his way up the field to 3rd. The moment he stepped on to the podium, the French crowd erupted as they showed support for their home hero.

It was a harder race for the other home hero, Fabio Quatararo, who started 13th and eventually finished the day in 7th. He was able to keep his nose clean but didn’t make significant enough strides to truly battle with those ahead of him.

The race was full of drama, from start to finish, with nail-biting battles taking place for most of the race. None more so than lap 5 which gave us two enormous crashes between four riders running in the top 10.

Firstly, it was pole-sitter Pecco Bagnaia and Maverick Vinales who found themselves in the gravel. The pair were fighting for the same piece of tarmac and, as Vinales returned to the racing line, the pair bumped into each other. This caused Vinales to lose control of the bike and as his machine was wobbling, he clattered into the side of Bagnaia again and the pair went down. Both were able to walk away from the crash but, in the heat of the moment, they began scrapping and fighting in the gravel.

Then, moments later, Luca Marini lost the front of the bike when he hit a kerb. Alex Marquez then ran into the back of the VR46 machine and they both went down dramatically. This incident left Marquez in the middle of the track but he was thankfully able to move and avoid the on-coming traffic.

It was an equally difficult day for Jack Miller. He started the race in 4th and, in typical Miller style, he flew off the line past pole-sitter Bagnaia and was quickly fighting with Marquez for the lead. He made a brave, aggressive move around the outside of Museum Corner – the same corner where he crashed out of Saturday’s sprint race – and was able to claim the lead on the second lap of the race.

Miller enjoyed the clean air for much of the race, until lap 11 when he began to slide backwards down the field. He eventually ended up back in 9th before sliding out of the race at turn 4 of lap 25. It appeared that he was struggling with a bike issue but this is yet to be confirmed.

It was a dream day for rookie Augusto Fernandez who enjoyed his best result of his MotoGP career so far. He was battling hard with the likes of Aleix Espargaro and Brad Binder before crossing the line in 4th. He received a hero’s welcome in the pit lane, his team clearly delighted with his mature and impressive performance today.

Espgararo ended the day in 5th, just ahead of Binder in 6th. The South African would have been hoping for more today after his exceptional 2nd place finish in yesterday’s sprint race. However, he was forced out wide by Alex Marquez at the start of the race. This shuffled him down to 16th and ultimately ruined his chance of a podium or win.

The top 10 was rounded out by Quatararo in 7th, Fabio Di Giannantonio in 8th followed by Takaaki Nakagami and Franco Morbidelli in 9th and 10th respectively.

We now have a 3-week break before the grid is back in action in Mugello. That’s 3 weeks for today’s winners to revel in their success and our losers to dwell on their difficult weekend.

Full Results
1st Marco Bezzecchi Mooney VR46
2nd Jorge Martin Prima Pramac +4.256s
3rd Johann Zarco Prima Pramac +4.795s
4th Augusto Fernandez GASGAS Tech3 +6.281s
5th Aleix Espargaro Aprilia +6.726s
6th Brad Binder Red bull KTM +13.638s
7th Fabio Quartararo Monster Energy Yamaha +15.023s
8th Fabio Di Giannantonio Gresini +15.826s
9th Takaaki Nakagami LCR Honda +16.370s
10th Franco Morbidelli Monster Energy Yamaha +17.828s
11th Danilo Petrucci Ducati Lenovo +29.735s
12th Lorenzo Savadori CrytoDATA RNF +36.135s
13th Jonas Folger GASGAS Tech3 +49.808s

DNFs = Marc Marquez, Jack Miller, Alex Rins, Joan Mir, Alex Marquez, Luca Marini, Maverick Vinales, Pecco Bagnaia

Championship Standings
1st Pecco Bagnaia 94 points
2nd Marco Bezzecchi 93 points
3rd Brad Binder 81 points
4th Jorge Martin 80 points
5th Johann Zarco 66 points

Feature Image Credit: MotoGP

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