MOTO GP

Pecco Bagnaia takes the duel of the year in Jerez against Marc Márquez

With a Jerez circuit packed to capacity, with almost 145,000 spectators in the stands this Sunday for a total of almost 300,000 fans who passed through here throughout the weekend. New absolute attendance record in a Spanish Grand Prix to remember.

If Saturday's sprint already put our heart rate through the roof, the best was for Sunday's race, with a spectacular duel between two-time champion Bagnaia and a reborn Marc Márquez, who came close to winning in almost three years. A duel that focused on laps 21 and 22, when the rider from Cervera put the motorcycle on the Italian, who defended himself with everything, coming to contact both riders.

Before all that, we had already seen Bagnaia very in tune from the start. He started in seventh position and on the first lap he had already taken the lead, after a great start but, above all, a spectacular pass on the outside of Martín and Bezzecchi to take second. And before finishing the first lap, he also got rid of Márquez and took the lead.

Behind, Pedro Acosta had an incident with Johann Zarco, went wide and completed his first lap in 21st; while his teammate, Augusto Fernández, skipped the start and was penalized with a double long lap.

Martín was not intimidated by Bagnaia's overtaking and one lap later, he took the lead. And there he stayed until the tenth lap, when he crashed in turn 6, leaving Bagnaia alone in the lead.

And the Spaniard's pace had previously broken the group, in the first few laps in which Márquez did not seem comfortable and was even overtaken by Bezzecchi. But after the halfway point of the race came the reaction of the man from Cervera, who passed the Italian and made a comeback against Pecco, who was more than a second ahead of him.

At a fast lap pace, Márquez reached the Bagnaia wheel and five laps from the end he tried it for the first time in Nieto-Peluqui, to the delirium of the fans. He withstood the Italian in an aggressive maneuver in which they touched each other and which could take both of them to the ground. One lap later, Marc tried again at the same point, but this time he went a little too far and the champion regained the position.

From there, Marc's front wheel overheated and he missed the opportunity. He opened the gap again in front and although Gresini's driver pushed him until the last lap, he did not make a single mistake and Bagnaia won again, something he had not done since the opening event in Qatar. Márquez, for his part, achieved his first podium with the Ducati and the first in the dry since Australia 2022.

Marco Bezzecchi completed the podium, ahead of Álex Márquez and Enea Bastianini, in a top 5 for Ducati. Brad Binder was the first non-Ducati bike and Miguel Oliveira the first Aprilia ahead of Maverick Viñales. While Pedro Acosta finally finished in tenth position.

Chechu Lazarus