MOTO GP

Marc Márquez takes advantage of four raindrops to win again and Jorge Martín causes a mess

The Spaniard Marc Márquez(moto 93) has achieved his second consecutive victory after winning the San Marino Grand Prix race, taking advantage of the four raindrops that fell on the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli to take the lead and, from there, hold off the Italians Pecco Bagnaia and Enea Bastianini to enter the finish line triumphantly in the 18th triple for Ducati, which surpasses the historical record: 17 for Honda.

The cross was put by Jorge Martín, who rushed in to change bikes and ended up lapped, salvaging a single point by finishing 15th. He continues as leader of the general classification, but sees his lead reduced to just 7 points.

With the race declared dry and the white flag warning of raindrops, Pecco Bagnaia made a fantastic start to get ahead of Franco Morbidelli, who was soon overtaken by Jorge Martín first and then Pedro Acosta. Behind him, Marc Márquez was on the verge of being knocked down by Enea Bastianini and he lost positions, although he quickly passed Marco Bezzecchi and Jack Miller to move up to seventh.

Morbidelli gave the game back to Acosta to regain third position and, after a collision between Bagnaia and Martín without consequences, Acosta and Morbidelli collided when the Murcia native tried to regain the position, with some parts flying off his KTM. That didn't stop him and shortly after he tried again, but he immediately went wide and Morbidelli took advantage.

Acosta began to lose steam and, after going a little wide, he entered the track and fell at the next corner, although he managed to get back into the race. This left a gap behind them over Brad Binder, who was overtaken by Enea Bastianini. Meanwhile, Franco Morbidelli made the fastest lap to stick to Jorge Martín, but on the next lap he crashed.

It was starting to rain harder and Martín decided to come in to change bikes, something that Aleix Espargaró, Raúl Fernández, Maverick Viñales, Pedro Acosta and, one lap later, Álex Rins also did. In the meantime, Binder and Márquez passed Bastianini and caught up with Bagnaia. The eight-time champion overtook Bagnaia to take the lead and, behind him, Jack Miller appeared to pass Binder and get behind Bagnaia.

The rain eased and Martín went back into the pits to get the bike back on the slicks, being lapped on returning to the track by the first classified riders, where Márquez and Bagnaia began to open a gap on Miller, who was again overtaken by Bastianini before the eyes of Álex Márquez, Binder, Bezzecchi and a Fabio Quartararo who had grown with the rain.

Bastianini began to close in on the leading duo, leaving the chasing group far behind, with Alex Marquez overtaking Miller. As for the lapped group, Martin had two seconds over Viñales in what was the fight for 15th position, while Aleix Espargaro went into the pits and retired.

Marquez's pace was too much for Bastianini, who dropped off definitively and left the fight in a one-on-one where Bagnaia opted to give up after staying very close for several laps, which transferred the excitement to the fight for fourth place, where Binder managed to pass Alex Marquez, who was struggling with the tyres and was caught by Bezzecchi.

In his own way, Marc Marquez continued to extend his advantage over Pecco Bagnaia to achieve another incontestable victory and demonstrate, many years later, his expertise in flag to flag races. The podium was completed by Enea Bastianini for another triple for Ducati.

Brad Binder escaped to finish fourth, with Marco Bezzecchi snatching fifth place from Álex Márquez while Fabio Quartararo finished seventh after letting go of Jack Miller, with Fabio Di Giannantonio and Pol Espargaró in the top 10. The last point went to Jorge Martín after a head-to-head with Maverick Viñales.

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