Frankly, this is getting ridiculous, and I’m writing this after the Sprint race and before the Main race, so who knows what we’ll be saying tomorrow? For now, it’s as if neither Bagnaia nor Martin want the 2024 MotoGP title, so adept are they at making a complete hash of things and letting the other off the hook just as they are about to deliver the killer blow.
Jorge Martin took pole position by another significant margin – over half a second – and converted that to first place at the start of the race, only to throw it all away when he lost the front on lap one. He remounted quickly and fought his way back to tenth but had nothing to show for his troubles, while Bagnaia won, halving Martin’s points lead.
The only thing we know about tomorrow is that we know absolutely nothing! Bagnaia has seven DNFs already this season and it would be a fool who would bet against him making it eight in tomorrow’s Main race, especially as he will be forced to use the medium or hard rear tyre for the longer race, on both of which tyres he is slower than on the soft tyre used for the Sprint.
2024 is becoming a season where mistakes are having a huge impact on the outcome but also it is becoming a season dominated by tyres.
“Until tomorrow afternoon I don’t want to say anything because it looks like this season is a championship of mistakes,” Bagnaia said after the race. “I have an idea, which has arrived from the performance of the tyres.
“The rear tyres have taken an enormous step [forward], but we are braking so hard because the rear is also helping a lot in the braking. But the front has more issues because we are entering much faster in all of the corners.
“So, the performance that Michelin has improved this season is incredible.
“All the season, all the circuits we improved the pace a lot. But when you are at this limit it is easy to have a crash. So, it’s super important for the championship but we have to be focused.”
Of equal significance for Martin is the fact that his mistakes are not only preventing him from extending his championship lead over Bagnaia but they are also allowing Bastiannini and Marc Marquez to bring themselves into the championship picture. Marquez made a stunning start from 12th on the grid, finishing the first lap in fourth, behind Bagnaia, Acosta and Bezzecchi.
Bezzecchi then lunged up the inside of Acosta, which also allowed Marquez through. Then Bezzecchi oh-so nearly took Bagnaia out when he got his braking all wrong, which allowed Marquez into second. By this time, Bastiannini had worked his way up to sit behind Marquez who was doing an incredible job on his GP23, not only keeping up with Bagnaia’s GP24 but staying ahead of Bastiannini’s similar machine.
Bastiannini had all the appearance of a man who, if he could only get past Marquez, would be able to challenge Bagnaia for the lead. At this point, with both factory Ducati riders mathematically able to win the title, team orders surely have no place as yet but imagine if Bastiannini was able to attack Bagnaia and it all went wrong, which is all the more likely this year, given the acknowledged difficulty of overtaking, as witnessed last weekend at Misano between Martin and Bastiannini. Now, wouldn’t that have been something?
Even Bastiannini taking points away from Bagnaia would be enough to give Ducati team principals kittens! Quite what Bagnaia himself would say is open to conjecture, although not difficult to imagine; until he is in a position where it is just himself and Martin fighting for the title, however, he can’t say much, however he might want to.
Main Race
If there were plenty of crashes on Sunday then, for once, it was neither Bagnaia nor Martin. Martin rode an imperious race, never once being headed or even properly threatened by an impressive Acosta. The rookie would seem to be closing the gap, only for Martin to turn up the heat a little and disappear off into the distance again. Remarkably, it was his first Sunday victory since Le Mans in May!
Behind Acosta was where all the action was happening. The factory Ducatis were taking a long time to get their tyres up to temperature and both riders were being very circumspect. Morbidelli was flying, as was Bezzecchi, and Marquez was in the mix, also, but they were all holding each other up with their little squabbles, allowing Acosta and Martin to get away in front.
Once the factory Ducatis got up to speed, it was by no means certain that they wouldn’t be able to catch Acosta and perhaps even Martin. But Bastiannini, although flying, crashed shortly after setting the fastest lap of the race. Marquez gave us the unusual sight of his Ducati’s engine expiring significantly, flames licking out from underneath the engine as Marquez pulled off the track. With both crashes, it looks as if Bastiannini’s and Marquez’ championship hopes are over. Marquez won’t be too disappointed, as his goal for this year was to get to know the Ducati and find consistency, which he has done. Bastiannini, on the other hand, is another rider who wins one week and crashes out the next while running with pace that could have seen him on the podium. He needs to find the same consistency as Marquez.
And so the race ran out, Martin, Acosta and Bagnaia making up the podium, Martin getting his points lead back up to 21 points. After his headline-grabbing early performances, the hysteria surrounding Acosta has died down a little, despite taking four out of KTM’s five podiums, and even his race in Indonesia was notable for its lack of fireworks but it was as solid a second place as we have seen all year.
More worrying was the possibility of a 16-second penalty for Acosta as his front tyre was found to be running too low a pressure. Thankfully for everyone concerned, the rim had been leaking air and he had not started the race with an under-pressure tyre, so the penalty wasn’t applied but it’s not a good thought that the championship could be decided by a penalty at the last round to either Bagnaia or Martin, after one or the other has taken the title. Michelin’s new front tyre won’t be ready until 2026 but it really needs to be ready for 2025, so we can get rid of the pressure rule once and for all.
After a disastrous qualifying, where he was hampered by technical issues, Brad Binder couldn’t do much in the Sprint race, finishing 13th, but a race-long tussle with Johann Zarco and Fabio Quartararo saw him take 8th in the Main race, while Zarco took Honda’s best result for nearly a year in ninth. Not much to write home about but, with Marini being taken out by Jack Miller at the beginning of the race, along with Aleix Espargaro and Alex Marquez, and Joan Mir crashing out a bit later, Honda will no doubt seize any straw at the moment.
There are five rounds to go – Japan, Australia, Thailand, Malaysia and Spain (Valencia) – so you’d better block out those weekends because (we hope!) this is going to go down to the wire.
