It seemed half-doomed, but, in two weekends, the MotoGP World Championship has come back to life thanks to Jorge Martín.
The Pramac Ducati rider completed the double at Misano with victory in Sunday’s race, which added to Saturday’s Sprint, to put another dent in a recovering Pecco Bagnaia from a crash a week ago in Barcelona. The leader, with obvious suffering, ended up exhausted and could only finish third, behind Marco Bezzecchi.
The Madrid native had commented on this last weekend in Montmeló in an interview with La Vanguardia: “Is it possible to opt for the title? It is clear that I can fight to win more races for Pecco. I’m the only one who has beaten you to you; you have to keep dreaming”, encouraged Martín, who in the last two GPs of Catalonia and San Marino has subtracted 26 points from Bagnaia; from being 62 to 36. The champion has no margin for error, now that the Asian tour begins, seven dates before the final in Valencia.
As already happened in the short race on Saturday, the three tenors who are playing for the title started at the front again and were the three who occupied the podium, with the only threat of a Dani Pedrosa who was again superb, fourth, as in the Sprint, which stepped on the heels of Bagnaia in the fight for third place, during his return to the World Cup with an invitation.
For Martín, the second Sunday victory of the year (the previous one was in Germany) was almost as easy as the one on Saturday. From pole, he took off like an airplane, with Bagnaia behind and Bezzecchi third. Pulling hard, the Madrid native caught the two Italians, and all three opened a gap of 8 tenths over the pursuers, led first by Brad Binder – who fell on lap 9/27 – and then by Pedrosa.
The Madrid man took on the wear and tear of printing rhythm, while Bezzecchi weighed the strength of the sore Bagnaia when he tried an early advance which the champion answered when he regained the place.
As in the Sprint, Pedrosa wanted to become the animator of a soporific race where very little happened. Lap after lap, without making a sound, the little Samurai came within 6 tenths of Bezzecchi (v. 13/27) and to take the lead to qualify for the podium.
However, once the equator of the race was passed, everything rushed. Martín put himself in Martinator style to make a change of pace and start to open a gap on Bagnaia, who was falling to 2.2 seconds with 8 laps to go. The Spaniard started to break away to look for the victory, while Bezzecchi, seeing Pecco’s weakness, threw himself on his neck to leave him dry on lap 19 and snatch the second position from him. A favor to Martín, who was 2.3 seconds behind. The one from the VR46 gritted his teeth and was able to get close to 1.4… But he couldn’t trouble the Spaniard any more, who had more than enough left to secure the victory and nail a 9-point bite into the leader
The show and the excitement took place at the back, in the fight for the third drawer of the podium that Pedrosa opened with Bagnaia. The man from Valais, as in the Sprint, added salt with a pace that the rivals did not even suspect. At 37 years old, in the second appearance in a Grand Prix this season with an invitation, the KTM tester showed again that he has plenty of driving and class to continue competing in the elite, without having the best bike, nor the ideal physique , nor the shooting to last 27 laps.
However, Pedrosa came to overwhelm Bagnaia, he came within 5 tenths, and was about to hunt him down. “At the end of the race, Pecco started to suffer more physically, and there I said to myself: ‘We have to try again, it’s right here in front’. But as soon as he saw that I was approaching him, he gave what little he had left and maintained the differences”, an energetic Pedrosa told Dazn sincerely, who was only 669 thousandths away from the podium, almost six years after the last one he achieved in Valencia in 2017.
“I had never been so happy with a fourth place; I’m very happy”, said the one from Castellar, who has scored 19 points in two days (6 in the Sprint and 13 yesterday) with two performances of great merit. The performance at the two invitationals (Jerez and Misano) has been brutal: in two grand prix he has scored more points (32) than Marc Márquez (31) in nine.
Cervera finished in 7th place, the best position he has achieved this year in the three Sunday races completed, at the circuit where he last won… in October 2021.
