MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks

With Ducati’s 100^th premier class victory up for grabs, there were plenty of willing candidates on the Misano playground, none more so than local resident Enea Bastianini. The Italian spent over 20 laps hounding Jorge Martin before making a slightly controversial move to snatch victory on the final lap. Although not quite happy with surrendering victory, Martin found comfort in the increased advantage in the world championship standings, following another significant mistake from Pecco Bagnaia. The reigning world champion added another crash to his tally, gifting Marc Marquez third place on the podium – the all-Ducati affair also securing the Bologna factory the constructors’ title. 

Not keen to have a repeat of Saturday’s start, Bagnaia managed to fend off Martin this time around, the Spaniard having a brief go into the first corner but running in hot and allowing the poleman to retake control of the field. Bastianini, Brad Binder and Pedro Acosta held station on the first lap, with Marc Marquez only making up one position past Marco Bezzecchi at turn eight. Fabio Quartararo, Maverick Viñales and Franco Morbidelli completed the top 10 on the opening lap, while Jack Miller recovered to 12^th and Alex Marquez up to 16^th, both having started on the back row. 

The first big change at the front was Binder crashing out of 4^th position at the start of lap two, handing that place to Acosta – the rookie nearly a second behind the leading trio of Ducatis and with Marquez on his tail. Martin made another attempt at turn four but again left enough room for Bagnaia to retaliate and the Italian stayed in control on lap three. Martin eventually made a move stick for longer than a few seconds when he attacked in the run to turn eight one lap later, taking the lead ahead of the factory Ducatis. Bagnaia seemed to be struggling suddenly and once he allowed Bastianini past after a mistake on lap five, they were left nearly a second behind Martin. Meanwhile, the exchanges at the front brought Acosta back into play, with Marquez not too far behind. Bezzecchi was still leading the next group a second down the road, including Quartararo and Morbidelli, with Aleix Espargaro a lonely 9^th ahead of teammate Viñales.

Martin set a hot pace at the front, but Bastianini managed to find a few extra tenths and reduced the gap to half a second by lap eight, while dropping Bagnaia one second back. The poleman wasn’t under immediate threat from behind, with Acosta seven tenths back and Marquez seven tenths further, about to come under fire from Bezzecchi – the Italian picking up the pace and ditching Quartararo and Morbidelli.  

By lap 10, Martin and Bastianini seemed to be in a league of their own, two seconds ahead of Bagnaia, who now had a second and a half in hand over Marquez, after Acosta crashed out of 4^th position at the end of lap nine. In a bit of a déjà vu from yesterday, Martin received a track limits warning soon after, but this time it wasn’t as much of a distraction, and he continued to keep Bastianini at arm’s length. The Beast was yet to find a gap and he was starting to see Martin getting slightly smaller in his horizon, as he extended a bit of a gap over the next couple of laps. Bagnaia had dropped nearly three seconds back by the time he picked up the pace to try to prevent a late charge from Marquez and managed to keep the Spaniard over a second behind. 

Going into the second half of the race, Bagnaia was the quickest man on track, the only one dipping into the 1:30s, but he was only a couple tenths quicker than the duo ahead, so it seemed a little too late to rejoin the victory battle, where Martin was still keeping Bastianini in check. Bagnaia reduced his deficit to under two seconds with 12 laps remaining, while decisively dropping Marquez three seconds back. However, his progress halted around the 1.6 seconds mark, and it looked like Martin and Bastianini would have the spotlight all to themselves over the final 10 laps. That deal was sealed when Bagnaia made another big mistake with seven laps remaining, crashing out at turn eight and handing third place to Marquez – the Spaniard a distant six seconds behind the two leaders. 

Martin started the final five laps fully aware of his rival’s misfortune and tried his best to ensure maximum punishment in the championship standings, his riding making it clear that he was not going to settle for second. The Spaniard started the final lap a mere tenth of a second ahead of Bastianini but when an aggressive attack inevitably came at turn four, both of them ran off the track and a disgruntled Martin crawled home five seconds behind Bastianini. Marquez took the final podium position about three seconds later, while Bezzecchi secured a solid fourth place on home soil. Quartararo lost a couple of positions on the final lap to Morbidelli and Viñales, dropping to 7^th, while Espargaro, Alex Marquez and Miguel Oliveira completed the top 10. 

Regardless of the spicy end to proceedings, Martin extends his advantage in the world championship to 24 points over Bagnaia, while Bastianini reclaims 3^rd, 59 points behind Martin and 1 ahead of Marquez. 

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