MotoGP | Bagnaia wins Catalan GP; Marquez puts on a show and reaches the podium
Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team), won the Catalan GP held on the Barcelona-Catalunya circuit, for the MotoGP championship, after an intense dispute with Jorge Martin (Prima Pramac Racing) and, in some part of the race, Pedro Acosta (Red Bull GASGAS Tech3).
Despite the good result on Sunday, Bagnaia did not score points in the Sprint race, held on Saturday. He crashed alone, in Turn 5, on the last lap, when he was leading.
But, once again, the star of the race was Marc Marquez (Gresini Racing), who started from 14th position, overtook several riders, and finished third, after ‘holding back’ Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing) in the last laps.
Marquez did pretty much the same thing on Saturday. He overtook several riders very quickly, after all the race was shorter, and finished second.
In this Sunday’s race, Bagnaia managed to start very well and took the lead very fast. But he had no peace of mind, as Acosta was on his trail the entire time.
It didn’t take long for the rookie to perform a daring maneuver on the reigning champion and take the lead. Then, Martin also overtook Bagnaia and went after Acosta. Without taking long, the Pramac rider overtook. The GasGas rider didn’t let up and gave the championship leader a lot of work. But, because of his aggressiveness, he ended up making a mistake, when braking at turn 10, lost the front of the bike and went to the ground.
With this, the path for Bagnaia to recover was clear. He saved tires and, in the second half of the race, went after Martin. He managed to get close with a few laps to go, overtook and crossed the finish line to victory, without any difficulties.
Marquez, despite a poor classification, had two great recovery races and reached the podium in both. With that, he took third place in the championship, just 2 points behind Bagnaia and 41 behind Martin.
MotoGP returns on June 2nd, with the Italian GP, at the Mugello circuit.
photos: MotoGP