The MotoGP World Championship has entered a new dimension after passing through India. The Bollywood dances made their mark and Pecco Bagnaia opened the door to the World Cup with an unexpected fall that weakens his leadership: he is close to 13 points by a heroic Jorge Martín, who ended up falling behind to be second, and at 44 points he has Marco Bezzecchi, who He won at the Buddh Circuit and added his third win of the year.
Only three races ago, after Austria, Bagnaia had an advantage of 62 points over Martín and 68 over Bezzecchi. The champion will not be able to fail in the seven races that remain on the calendar.
Martín knew that he had his great option to take another bite at the lead. He started better than Bezzecchi, the poleman, and took the lead into the first corner, as did Bagnaia; World Cup leader and pursuer took off, with Bez behind. But Martín slipped into the third corner and gave the lead to the champion.
Marc Márquez gained a position, fifth, over his teammate Mir, and was fourth before closing the first lap, overtaking Quartararo in a great braking session.
Bezzecchi, with a great pace demonstrated in qualifying, went on the attack and overtook Bagnaia to take the lead and begin to leave, just as Martín did when braking for turn 4 (lap 5/21). The two candidates to overthrow the champion were in the lead, a critical situation for Bagnaia who risked losing many points of advantage.
Marc Márquez, who was going to the limit when braking, lost the Honda when he released the brakes in turn 1 of lap 6. As it was a fall at low speed, he did not let go of the bike and was able to resume the race, but very late. In 93, with good rhythm, his particular comeback began.
Bezzecchi was riding with great strength and already on lap 8/21 he opened a 3-second gap on Martín, who had Bagnaia glued to the wheel, not wanting to disengage. The Italian had a margin of 8 tenths over the fourth, Quartararo. Once halfway through the race, Bez was already 4 seconds ahead of Martín, who contained the champion as best he could, increasingly on top, preparing to overtake the Madrid native.
Pecco, seeing that his lead was weakening as he finished third, held nothing back and attacked Martín's Pramac with fury. On lap 13 he overtook him for second position and tried to close in on Bezzecchi, who was already 5 seconds behind. But he was surprised... A few curves later, lap 14/21, Bagnaia lost control of his Ducati, slid on the asphalt and signed a painful and unexpected zero. The World Cup opened: Martín provisionally, with second place, was only 13 points away, and Bezzecchi was 44 points away.
Martín, off the hook more than 6 seconds behind Bezzecchi, starred in one of the images of the race by zipping up his overalls, which had been unzipped, so as not to be penalized, as happened to Quartararo in Montmeló in the 2021 race. The Madrid native kept the Frenchman at bay, an unexpected podium finisher, by more than a second.
El Diablo had not been on a podium since the GP of the Americas in Austin in April, and was on the verge of taking second position in an intense final fight with Martín, who had to sweat 20 points due to the Frenchman's harassment. The Madrid native made his life complicated by having an exit from the track that gave Quartararo options, although he defended the second box very well, which brings him closer to 13 points behind Bagnaia. The World Cup is getting red hot.
Joan Mir's fifth position was very notable, in his best performance in the ranks of Repsol Honda. The Mallorcan, who started fifth (his best starting position), maintained a tough fight with Binder for fourth position. Mir had a catastrophic year with six zeros and a best result of 11th place in Portugal.
Marc Márquez, after the fall, managed to recover to a good ninth position, behind Maverick Viñales.
