The MotoGP World Championship comes back to life thanks to Jorge Martín. The Pramac Ducati rider completed the double in Misano with the victory in the Sunday race, which is added to Saturday's Sprint, to give another bite to Pecco Bagnaia and get closer to within 36 points of the leader, who could only be third, behind Marco Bezzecchi. The Madrid native had commented on it last weekend in Montmeló to La Vanguardia: "Of course I can fight to win more races against Pecco. We have to keep dreaming."
Superb was Dani Pedrosa in Misano on his return to the World Championship with an invitation, achieving a great fourth place and coming close to putting pressure on Pecco Bagnaia in the fight for third.
Once again the three tenors who are playing for the title started in the lead, sharing the first line. Jorge Martín, from pole, started like a plane, with Bagnaia – in yellow – behind and Bezzecchi third. Pedrosa placed fourth, ahead of Binder, so he gained one space again, as in the Sprint. That is to say, the one who lost the most was Viñales, from fourth to sixth. Marc Márquez moved up to eighth in a good start.
Martín pulled hard, hooked on Bagnaia and Bezzecchi, the three of them opening a small gap of 8 tenths (v. 4/27) over the pursuers, led by Binder, who overtook his teammate Pedrosa.
The Spaniard took on all the effort of setting the pace, while Bezzecchi took the first step, overtaking Bagnaia (v. 6), although the champion regained the position a few meters later. Binder took advantage of this to get closer to the trio and turn it into a quartet. The 4 were more than 1.3s away from the van led by Pedrosa, fifth.
Brad Binder fell out of the front four on lap 9 when he lost control of the KTM, leaving fourth place to Pedrosa, 1.8s behind the leading trio. Behind the Vallesano was followed by a duo of Catalans, Viñales and Márquez, who was already sixth after overtaking Oliveira. The best position of 93 this year in the Sunday race.
As happened in the Sprint on Saturday, Pedrosa wanted to become the entertainer of a soporific race in which very little happened. Lap after lap, without making a sound, the little Samurai came within 6 tenths of Bezzecchi (v. 13/27), while he was more than 3 seconds behind Viñales and Marc. The small pilot from Castellar, 37 years old, was already there.
However, after the halfway point of the race (v. 17/27) things happened. First, Pedrosa was losing consistency in his pace and was moving away from Bezzechi, 1.5 seconds behind. In turn, Martín went into Martinator mode and began to open a small gap of 8 tenths over Bagnaia, which multiplied to 2.2 seconds on lap 19, with 8 laps to go.
The Spaniard was on the run for his second Sunday victory after that of Germany... but he should monitor the movements behind him.
Seeing Pecco's weakness, Bezzecchi also threw himself at his countryman's neck to leave him dry on lap 19 and snatch second position from him, with the challenge of chasing down Martín, 2.3 seconds behind. At the same time, Pedrosa was also closing in on the champion, just 7 tenths behind. Which became 5.
Martín couldn't be trusted riding in the lead alone because Bezzecchi was pushing hard. The Italian cut the deficit from 2.3 to 1.7 seconds, with 5 laps remaining. In the last lap he got closer to 1.4 seconds, but the Spaniard kept his pace solidly and scored his second Sunday victory. A bite of 9 more points for Bagnaia, who is close to 36 points in the World Cup. There is life.
Pedrosa closed his second participation with a creditable fourth place, without being able to attack Bagnaia. Viñales was fifth and Marc Márquez gave up sixth place with five laps to go to Oliveira. 7th place is the best position achieved by the 93 this year on a Sunday (in three completed races).
