What emotion, what suspense until the last second at Phillip Island with Johann Zarco finally winning in MotoGP! Since 2017 in the category, Zarco had a race on the rise and in the end didn’t give anyone a chance to get ahead of the race on the last lap where he won. Jorge Martín seemed to be in a horror movie after leading until, literally, the last lap where he didn’t even finish on the podium!
All set for the start of the main MotoGP race, given the changes to the schedule announced during Friday. 18ºC in Phillip Island, last-minute tire changes, and surely a lot of excitement in the race.
Martín had the best start and stayed in the lead but the highlight was for the local man, Jack Miller, who quickly gained four positions! However, on the next lap, the Australian started to lose positions and fell to sixth, while Fabio Di Giannantonio was on the decline… moving up to fourth place after overtaking Francesco Bagnaia.
However, Pramac sent a message, literally, to Martín: “Breathe”, reminding him of what happened last week when the rider crashed while leading by 3s over the second. However… Martín did not slow down and continued determined to maintain a frenetic pace, and with nine laps to go, he already had a 2.391s lead over Binder.
Joan Mir, in turn 4, crashed after battling with Luca Marini on the 10th lap. The Spanish rider, however, picked up his bike and returned to the race, but… for a short time. The Repsol Honda rider eventually retired shortly after.
This was the top ten after 13 laps completed:
Next to “taste” the asphalt was Augusto Fernández, who, after 12 laps, ended his race after crashing.
Martín continued very strong in the lead with a 3.461s advantage over Binder, with Di Giannantonio 3.625s behind #89. Bagnaia, on the other hand, had a 1.032s difference to the fourth-placed rider, and Zarco remained in fifth.
At any moment, it was expected that DiGia would be able to overtake Binder, at 0.045s but with the difference constantly changing. Both riders had the same tire selection. With nine laps to go in the race, the overtaking was confirmed and DiGia, still without a place on the grid for 2024, was in second place!
The race entered a decisive phase and already within the last lap Martín was leading by a margin of 3.125s over DiGia. However, out of nowhere, Martín saw #49 gaining 0.4s on him and anything could still happen.
Those who saw their lives complicated were Bagnaia, who was overtaken by Zarco and thus dropped to fifth place.
So, the top ten looked like this: Martín, DiGia, Binder, Zarco, Bagnaia, Álex Márquez, Aleix Espargaró, Jack Miller, Marco Bezzecchi, and Marc Márquez.
Binder still had something up his sleeve and moved into second place. 0.8s separated the fifth from the second.
Three laps from the end, Martín was losing time considerably and “only” 1.649s separated Binder from the lead, at a time when Zarco rose to third place!
Two laps from the end, Zarco saw the light at the end of the tunnel and moved up to second place, with Martín 0.955s behind. Bagnaia, on the other hand, was also giving his all and was third.
On the final lap, Martín had… 0.4s to Zarco, and the Frenchman, with the pace he had… moved into the lead! And not only that! Bagnaia also overtook the Spaniard and was briefly in third place.
Martín lost positions again and in one lap went from first to fifth, with Brad Binder also passing him!
And victory! Finally, Johann Zarco managed to win in MotoGP seven years after moving up to the category! Di Giannantonio finished on the podium.
