MADRID, 21 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish rider Jorge Martín (Ducati) has moved even further away from the leader Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) in the MotoGP general standings after making a mistake in his strategy and being overtaken, when he was first, by up to four riders on the last lap of the long race. of the Australian Grand Prix, the sixteenth round of the motorcycle World Championship, in which the Frenchman Johann Zarco (Ducati) won ahead of ‘Pecco’ and the also Italian Fabio Di Giannantonio (Ducati).
After the drama experienced a week ago in Mandalika, where he crashed before the halfway point of the event, the man from Madrid lived another day to forget, that he had started well with the conquest of pole and that it was ruined with the bad choice of the tires in the long race, brought forward to Saturday due to the forecast of wind gusts of up to 60 km/h on Sunday.
In fact, he led the race 26 of the 27 laps, but the tires said enough. The ’89’, which chose a different set of tires than its rivals, suffered the consequences of the degradation of the rear soft compound and, with only one lap ahead, was overtaken by Zarco, by Bagnaia, by Di Giannantonio (Ducati ) and by the South African Brad Binder (KTM). Finally, he was fifth.
The Frenchman, Moto2 champion in 2015 and 2016, thus achieved his first victory in MotoGP by coming back from the second row – he started fifth – while ‘Diggia’ – who started sixth – signed his first podium in the premier class.
With his second place at Phillip Island, ‘Pecco’ increases his distance over Martín, from whom he is now separated by 27 points. Ahead, the sprint race on Sunday, provided weather conditions permit, and the last four Grand Prix.
Martín surprised by riding the rear soft compound and, once the traffic lights were turned off, he defended his privileged position against Binder. Both imposed their pace while the chasing group – made up of Di Giannantonio, Bagnaia, Zarco, the Spanish Marc Márquez (Repsol Honda) and the Australian Jack Miller (KTM), and later joined by Aleix Espargaró (Aprilia) – tried to hunt them down.
Di Giannantonio distanced himself from the group and only the championship leader managed to come out after him, while Martín dominated with more than three seconds ahead of them with 10 laps to go. The drama for ‘Martinator’ began with just five laps left until the checkered flag, and his rivals smelled blood.
Before, Zarco had overtaken ‘Diggia’, who also saw ‘Pecco’ leave him behind, and the three, together with Binder, overtook Martín with one lap remaining, condemning him to fifth final position.
As for the rest of the Spaniards, Aleix Espargaró finished in eighth position, just ahead of Alex Márquez (Ducati), while Maverick Viñales (Aprilia) was eleventh and Marc Márquez fifteenth. Raúl Fernández (Aprilia), sixteenth, and Pol Espargaró (KTM), eighteenth, finished out of the points.
For his part, Joan Mir (Repsol Honda) could not finish after crashing on lap 11 after a contact in turn 4 with the Italian Luca Marini (Ducati), like Augusto Fernández (KTM), also out for a drop.
2023-10-21 08:44:07
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