MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks

There’s a special kind of nerves reserved for the first race of a season, but Marc Marquez did his best not to keep us too tense for too long, taking off from pole position and only getting caught by the cameras over the next 13 laps. Marquez’s sprint victory returns him to the top of the world championship standings for the first time since his last title celebration in 2019, and this time he also shared the celebrations with his brother, as Alex Marquez was his closest challenger before settling for second place. Pecco Bagnaia found himself in a rather unexpected situation of having to defend a podium position from a rookie, but calmly managed that challenge to start his title bid with a third place. 

The poleman was untroubled at the start, helped by an early exchange between Alex Marquez and Bagnaia, but the Gresini rider had already reclaimed second by turn three. Ai Ogura and Jack Miller swapped places off the line, with Morbidelli settling in 6^th after an early attack, and Fabio Quartararo climbing into 7^th, ahead of Brad Binder, Pedro Acosta and Johann Zarco. The trio completed the top 10 on the opening lap, with Raul Fernandez and Marco Bezzecchi the big losers at the start – a moment off the line dropping the Italian to 19^th. 

By lap three, Marc Marquez was enjoying around six tenths of a second of space from brother Alex, who in turn had one second in hand over Bagnaia. The Italian had some closer company behind him, but Ogura was sensibly biding his time for an attack. At the opposite end of the spectrum, Acosta was really keen to harass teammate Binder in the battle for 8^th place and the Spaniard made a move stick on the following lap, setting off to chase Quartararo, seven tenths up the road. 

While under pressure from a rapid Ogura, Bagnaia finally got on the same pace as the Marquez brothers on lap four, but the Italian had a second and a half to find on the Gresini rider ahead. A couple of laps later and victory was slipping further out of his reach, as Marc had dropped Alex over a second behind as well. With Ogura still hot on Bagnaia’s tail, the duo had stretched a second of advantage over the rest of the pack led by Morbidelli, and missing Miller by lap seven – the Australian crashing out of 6^th place. That handed 6^th to Quartararo, but only briefly, as he now had Acosta breathing down his neck and the KTM man took advantage of the Frenchman’s mistake at turn eight one lap later. Another second back, Binder and Joan Mir were provisionally claiming the final points on offer, with Zarco not too far back, defending 10^th from Fabio Di Giannantonio.

By lap 10, it was that fight for 10^th that was getting most of the airtime, as the leaders were pretty spread out at the front, with Marc Marquez 1.3 seconds ahead of Alex Marquez, the same gap keeping Bagnaia away, but with more room to breathe as Ogura dropped some seven tenths back. However, all good things must come to an end and Zarco seemed to have settled the score for 10^th once Di Giannantonio dropped back and retired with a mechanical issue one lap later – Fernandez and Bezzecchi seemingly unable to mount a challenge and keep the action going.

The poleman started the final lap with almost a second and a half of advantage and kept much of that until the chequered flag, only losing a few tenths in an early celebration. Bagnaia crossed the finish line two seconds after the Marquez brothers, with Ogura securing a fantastic 4^th place on his premier class debut, less than a second behind the podium positions. Morbidelli took a lonelier 5^th place, with a six second chasm to Acosta in 6^th. Quartararo had to settle for 7^th, while Binder and Mir took the final points on offer. 

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