The MotoGP World Championship may be revived. But for reasons we would have liked different. Victim of a heavy fall after a huge high side at the exit of the second corner, Francesco Bagnaia found himself on the ground while the whole peloton tumbled at full speed behind him. Brad Binder could not avoid the Ducati rider and rolled over him with his KTM, at the level of the legs.
Conscious, Bagnaia was evacuated to the medical center by an ambulance. His team-mate Enea Bastianini, behind a first corner braking strike that sent Johann Zarco, Marco Bezzecchi and Alex Marquez to the ground, joined him shortly after for medical checks on his hand.
It was therefore without an official Ducati that a second start was given, after a 25′ break and for 23 laps. Maverick Vinales quickly took over Jorge Martin, yet author of the best start. The Ducati Pramac rider was then overtaken by two other Aprilias, those of Aleix Espargaro and Miguel Oliveira. “Martinator” found himself fourth, just ahead of his teammate Johann Zarco. Fabio Quartararo, he had pulled off an extraordinary action, going from seventeenth place on the grid to tenth, then eighth.
First double for Aprilia in MotoGP
Martin, aware that he could make an unexpected close to the Championship in the absence of Bagnaia, regained his vigor and was back on the podium on the 10th lap, far behind the factory Aprilias of Vinales and Espargaro. After losing contact with his team-mate mid-race, Espargaro came back in his wake as the laps went by and went on the offensive in a muscular way on lap 20, jostling a dying Vinales with his front tire outside the track. Already winner of the sprint race on Saturday, Espargaro was refueling at home in Catalonia.
While Aprilia signed his first double in MotoGP, Jorge Martin climbed on the last step of the podium, ahead of his teammate Johann Zarco, winner of his duel against Oliveira. Fabio Quartararo went for a nice seventh place.
In the Championship, Martin returns to fifty points from Bagnaia. At the end of the race, Ducati had not communicated on the seriousness of the injuries of the Italian, transported by ambulance to the General Hospital of Catalonia, just like his teammate Bastianini. The next GP is scheduled for next Sunday at Misano.
