The first round of the MotoGP world championship is now concluded and Pecco Bagnaia is the first winner in Sunday races. The Italian had a great start and once he took the lead in the race, he never lost the position.
Everything is ready for the start of the race with the most points at stake in MotoGP, with Jorge Martín starting from pole position, who yesterday won the Sprint race. Aleix Espargaró, the oldest on the grid, is also on the front row, along with Enea Bastianini.
The second row is made up of big names like Brad Binder, Francesco Bagnaia, and Marc Márquez.
Just like in the Moto3 race, now it was the turn of new problems in MotoGP with Raúl Fernández’s RS-GP not starting, which led to a change in the total number of laps in the race from 22 to 21 and a slight change in the race start time.
The restart happened minutes later with Fernández on his second bike on track. Finally, the best start belonged to Martín but Bagnaia was doing great and soon took the lead of the race. Martín was in second and Binder in third, with Márquez in fourth and Bastianini in fifth. And shortly after, the first crash, with Jack Miller at turn 1 of the Qatari circuit, with another KTM rider in the spotlight, Binder, who moved up to second place. There was also a warning to Miguel Oliveira that he would have to complete the Long Lap, a penalty carried over from last year.Pedro Acosta continued to surprise and was the fastest on track at this point and even better, soon after he moved up to sixth place by overtaking Bastianini. Further ahead, Martín regained second place.The battle between Acosta and Álex Márquez was becoming more intense and the rookie was really challenging the Moto2 world champion, and the overtaking move would be confirmed shortly after. Bagnaia led the proceedings with a 0.342s lead over Martín and at this stage was faster than his opponent and seemed determined to increase the gap.
With eight complete laps, this was the top ten, once again with Binder in second place:
Two laps later Bagnaia effectively increased the gap to the second, now at 1.177s, while the battle between Binder and Martín saw a new chapter, with Martín returning to second place. This battle “only” served to help Bagnaia. Marc Márquez was fourth and had 0.308s over Acosta.
Aleix Espargaró was the best Aprilia rider in ninth, ahead of Maverick Viñales, with Fabio Quartararo in 11th ahead of the best Honda, Joan Mir.
Binder returned to second place and on the next lap… a duel of Spaniards with Acosta confirming the pass on Marc Márquez. The dream of a podium was not so far away.
Bagnaia continued to lead the race but his gap to second seemed to stabilize around 0.9s, Martín was now over 1s behind Binder.
And if in front the current champion controlled the events, the fight between Acosta and Marc Márquez had news, with the Gresini Racing rider returning to fourth position. Álex Márquez was at 0.222s and could try to attack the top five soon.
And so it was, Álex Márquez passed Acosta, but the rookie’s problems did not end there, as shortly after Bastianini also gained a position from him and… he seemed to be one of the slowest on track at this moment: only Raúl Fernández had a slower pace, and Fabio Di Giannantonio, 0.273s behind, could also be close to attacking the Spaniard.
Four laps from the end, R. Fernández ended his race and headed to the Trackhouse Racing pit. On the other hand, Bagnaia continued to lead the race with 0.905s over Binder, Martín was third and was 2.029s behind the leader. Marc Márquez was fourth, 0.470s from the podium, while Álex remained fifth.
DiGia finally passed Acosta and was seventh and… Aleix Espargaró was looking for the opportunity to gain a position: only 0.197s separated the oldest rider on track from the youngest. Also gaining a position was Bastianini, now in fifth instead of Álex Márquez.
A. Espargaró moved up to eighth place after Acosta could not resist, but with two laps to go and 1.695s advantage over Viñales, ninth place was a very likely reality.
As they entered the final lap, only a disaster could prevent Bagnaia’s victory as he led by 1.493s.
The race ended shortly after with Bagnaia confirming the victory, while Brad Binder was second and Martín third.
