THAILAND:
Spain’s Jorge Martin won a thrilling Thailand MotoGP race on Sunday to close the gap on Francesco Bagnaia to 13 points in the world championship with three legs of the season to go.
Italy’s Bagnaia crossed the line third, behind Brad Binder, but was relegated to second after the South African was penalized one place for exceeding the track limits on the final lap.
The trio were involved in a titanic battle in the final laps with the lead changing hands before pole-sitter Martin, on a Pramac-Ducati, crushed his rivals and celebrated wildly as he crossed the line.
“I’m so happy. This feeling is amazing because today I wasn’t better than them,” Martin said.
The Spaniard managed the race masterfully from pole position, conserving his tires to leave him with enough grip to withstand a late attack from fast-finishing KTM rider Binder and factory Ducati rider Bagnaia.
“I had the same tools, the same tires, but I had a better pace than them and I had to go more than 100 percent in the last lap to stay in front,” added Martin.
“I was pushing in the last lap like it was qualifying.”
Bagnaia, looking to defend his world title, entered the weekend with a 27-point cushion in the championship, but it was cut by Martin, who also won Saturday’s sprint at the Buriram International Circuit.
“I felt like I was in an arcade ( video ). It was incredible,” Bagnaia said of the daring final minutes of the 26-lap race around the 4,554km wheel track.
“That last lap was on the limit, but second place is positive for the championship this weekend considering where I was at the start,” added Bagnaia, who started from sixth on the grid and dropped to seventh in fourth round.
Bagnaia began to claw his way through the pack and was then handed third when Alex Marquez crashed the Gresini-Ducati on lap 12, allowing the world champion to close in on the leading duo of Martin and Binder.
“I’m really happy with the way I drove today,” Binder said. “I left nothing on the table.”
Marco Bezzechi was fourth on a VR-46 Ducati, Aleix Espargaro fifth and Fabio Quartararo sixth.
Saturday specialist Martin had won the last five sprint races but crashed while leading the main event in Indonesia a fortnight ago as Bagnaia grabbed the championship lead. back.
Then a disastrous gamble on a soft rear tire last weekend in Australia saw Martin drop to fifth from the lead as his tire gave out on the final lap.
But the Spaniard vowed not to make any more mistakes as the MotoGP circus arrived in Thailand and collected the 37 points available for victory in Sunday’s 13-lap sprint and 26-lap main event.
The riders now head to Malaysia’s Sepang circuit in two weeks with the championship duel looking likely to go down to the wire.
The season concludes in Qatar and Valencia next month.
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