Bold Martin wins to close gap on leader Bagnaia

Jorge Martin further closed the gap on championship leader Francesco Bagnaia after cruising to victory in yesterday’s San Marino MotoGP to complete a perfect weekend at Misano.
Spaniard Martin is now 36 points behind world champion Bagnaia after claiming the third Grand Prix win of his career, from pole position and well over a second ahead of Marco Bezzecchi.
The 25-year-old took maximum points after also winning the sprint race on Saturday, but injured Bagnaia limited the damage to his overall lead with a superb third place which delighted the home supporters at the Italian track.
Martin was on pole after also smashing the lap record by nearly half a second in qualifying on Saturday morning, but said he is not thinking about claiming his first world title for Ducati satellite team Pramac.
“To win all the points that were available is amazing,” Martin told reporters.
“I just want to win races. I’m not a factory rider, it’s not on me to win the championship. My day will come when I’m a factory rider.”
Bagnaia and VR46 rider Bezzecchi were riding in pain after bad crashes at last weekend’s Catalunya MotoGP.
Ducati’s Bagnaia flew off his bike at high speed at Montmelo and was then run over by Brad Binder, while Bezzecchi had to deal with a left hand injury sustained in a multi-bike pile up in Spain. But Bagnaia shone on pain killers, and after what must be one of the best rides of his career he said that he will be back to his best for the first ever India MotoGP in a fortnight.
“It would have been easy to give up, but today we managed to do a great race,” said Bagnaia.
“I think I will arrive in India in my best shape, 100 percent. Because the biggest problem in my knee is the haematoma and it’s going down. So I will not have any more problem to force on the leg.”
Bezzecchi also gained ground on Bagnaia and is now 65 points behind the leader with another display which drew the warm approval of fans who flooded onto the track after the race.
Battered Bagnaia and
Bezzecchi “Even if the injury is nothing crazy it’s causing me a lot of plain. I don’t know why. It was tough,” said Bezzecchi. “This is the maximum that I could do so I have to very happy.”
Bagnaia quickly overtook Bezzecchi and by the time the top three flew through the red smoke billowing over the track from Ducati fans’ flares he was neatly tucked behind Martin.
Bezzecchi moved into second over the Quercia corner on lap six but Bagnaia responded almost immediately to reclaim the spot behind Martin. Martin took advantage of the injuries to his principle title rivals with 10 laps to go, at one point stretching his lead to two-and-a-half seconds.
And eventually Bagnaia gave in to the pain and Bezzecchi’s pressure to concede second place to his countryman. With the top two positions all-but secured all eyes turned to a brilliant podium battle between Bagnaia and Dani Pedrosa. Reserve KTM rider Pedrosa pushed Bagnaia all the way, getting to two hundredths of a second behind his rival but could not find his way past the Italian’s brilliant defence.
Earlier David Alonso won the Moto3 race after a thrilling final-lap tussle with Jaume Masia and Deniz Oncu, coming out on top as the trio battled for first place over the last three corners.
Alonso is 46 points behind championship leader Daniel Holgado, who finished over 11 seconds off the pace in 16th and saw his championship lead cut to just four points over Japan’s Ayumu Sasaki. Pedro Acosta won the Moto2 race to extend his lead at the top of the overall standings to 34 points over home hope Tony Arbolino.