The Italian Francesco “Pecco” Bagnaia (Ducati Desmosedici GP23) defeated the South African Brad Binder (KTM RC 16), by barely 221 thousandths of a second, at the end of the MotoGP Spanish Grand Prix, at the “Ángel Nieto” circuit in Jerez de la Frontera, with the Australian Jack Miller (KTM RC 16) third.
Bagnaia becomes the new leader of the provisional classification of the world championship, with 87 points, having failed to finish the race, due to a fall, his compatriot Marco Bezzecchi (Ducati Desmosedici GP23).
The Australian Jack Miller (KTM RC 16) surprised the Spanish Aleix Espargaró (Aprilia RS-GP), author of the “pole position”, once again when the red light went out and before even completing the first lap he had already lost two of his protagonists, the French Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha YZR M 1) and the Portuguese Miguel Oliveira (Aprilia RS-GP), which crashed in turn two, which, as happened yesterday in the sprint race, once again forced the Race Direction to show a red flag.
Quartararo tried to enter between the Italian Marco Bezzecchi (Ducati Desmosedici GP22) and the Portuguese, but after touching both of them, the transalpine remained on his motorcycle, while their rivals were going to the ground.
The Red flag it was unavoidable so that the two downed pilots could be treated. Quartararo was able to get out of it on his own, but Oliveira had to be taken by ambulance to the circuit’s medical center.
As happened yesterday in the sprint race, it resumed at a distance of one lap less, 24 instead of 25, without Oliveira being able to take the exit of it, but Quartararo was, who was penalized with a “long lap” for causing the accident.
In the second outing, history repeats itself again and it is the KTMs of Brad Binder and Jack Miller that get ahead of the “pole position” of Espargaró, as well as the Spanish Jorge Martin (Ducati Desmosedici GP23) and Francesco “Pecco” Bagnaia (Ducati Desmosedici GP23), who relegated to the Aprilia to fifth place.
Already in that first round the Spaniard went to the ground alex rins (Honda RC 213 V), at turn nine, who was able to return to the race moments after it was announced that both Quartararo and his teammate Franco Morbidelli He had to comply with a “long lap” penalty, although one lap later he entered his workshop and retired.
other spanishJoan Mir (Honda RC 213 V) also crashed in turn nine of the second lap, in his case unable to continue, a second lap in which Jack Miller took the lead of the race, to the detriment of his teammate Brad Binder, who regained the place in the fourth lap.
On the fifth lap, Bagnaia took advantage of a mistake by Miller to overcome it and get behind Binder, chased by Martín, Espargaró and the trio of the Frenchman’s Ducati Johann Zarco, the Italian Luca Marini and the Spanish Alex Marquez.
Quartararo failed to complete the “long lap” and he had to repeat it when he was fourteenth -he lost two more positions at that moment-, while Bagnaia had to let Miller get ahead of him after the “touch” he starred in with him a few laps before.
The race thus returned to its “initial order”, with Brad Binder leading, followed by Jack Miller and with Bagnaia, Espargaró and Martín behind them.
On the twelfth lap Jorge Martín decided to attack Aleix Espargaró to try to follow in the wake of Bagnaia, who was unable to break his rivals from KTMalthough always very close to Binder and Miller, and shortly after Johann Zarco also overtook the Aprilia man, although shortly after he crashed in turn five.
Almost at the same moment that Zarco crashed, the same thing did, one turn later, at turn six, the world leader up to Jerez, the Italian Marco Bezzecchi (Ducati Desmosedici GP22).
Right on the entry curve to the finish line, the Jorge Lorenzo curve, the new world championship leader and current champion, “Pecco” Bagnaia, starred in a spectacular interior to get the lead to the detriment of Binder, although he did not throw in the towel on South African and he literally “stuck” to the Italian until the final lap.
In that last turn, Binder became Bagnaia’s “shadow” looking for the best point to overcome him, but he couldn’t achieve his goal and he had to settle for second place, ahead of his teammate Miller and with Martín fourth, ahead of Aleix Espargaró.
Dani Pedrosa (KTM RC 16) achieved a more than creditable seventh position, among Luca Marini and Alex Márquez, while Maverick Viñales (Aprilia RS-GP) had to retire after breaking his bike’s chain on the last lap, and Quartararo finished tenth.