Marquez capitalizes on wet conditions to claim victory, while Bagnaia narrows the gap to Martin’s lead after a costly mistake by the Pramac rider at the Misano circuit.
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Just one week after ending his winless streak, Marc Marquez claimed another victory at the Gran Premio Red Bull di San Marino, marking back-to-back wins for the Spaniard for the first time since 2021.
Meanwhile, Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia closed the gap to Jorge Martin’s championship lead to just seven points, following a costly error from the Pramac rider.
The race saw spots of rain fall on the Misano circuit, creating tricky conditions early on. Martin made a critical mistake by pitting for his wet bike at the end of lap seven, only for the rain to ease. This forced him to pit again on lap nine, rejoining the race a lap down in 15th place.
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Marquez took full advantage of the situation, rising from ninth on the grid to lead by lap eight. He then extended his lead to 3.1 seconds over Bagnaia, crossing the line comfortably ahead.
“Those rain drops helped a lot,” Marquez said. “Maybe Fausto looked down and gave us a helping hand. I thought I had nothing to lose and gave it all. Honestly, I would have never got back to the pits to change the bike, and surely not that soon. Had it rained for a couple of more laps then maybe… but I chose to follow the instincts of the home riders who stayed out. I can’t say if it’s an open championship again, but we want to continue looking for consistency.”
Marquez overhauled Bagnaia for the lead on lap eight and never looked back, winning by 3.102secs.
Bagnaia started strong from pole, leading into Turn 1, but faced early pressure from Pramac’s Franco Morbidelli and teammate Martin. A quick response from Martin saw him pass Morbidelli and close in on Bagnaia. However, a contact incident at Turn 1 forced Martin to sit up, allowing Morbidelli and Pedro Acosta on the GasGas to catch up.
While Martin’s hopes of extending his championship lead after Saturday’s sprint race win were dashed, Bagnaia’s second-place finish now leaves him just seven points behind. Bagnaia admitted disappointment at being outpaced by Marquez but expressed relief at narrowing the points gap to Martin.
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 rider and VR46 racer Marco Bezzecchi atoned for his error in the Saturday sprint to take fifth place.
Gresini’s Alex Marquez ran as high as fourth but then suffered with traction problems and faded late on to sixth, just ahead of Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo in seventh and KTM’s Jack Miller in eighth.
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