Jorge Martin was unable to replicate yesterday's superb start in the Tissot Sprint, when he moved from eighth to first thanks to a flawless start and a triple pass on the outside. On the first lap of today's Michelin® Grand Prix of France, he was running seventh while teammate Marco Bezzecchi, in the lead, was trying to break away.
Was this a missed opportunity for the MotoGP number 89? Not at all, because twenty-one laps later, after a fierce comeback, he was back in the game and making his presence felt on the Italian's neck.
Martin passed Bezzecchi four laps later, with a maneuver in the braking zone before the third turn of the Le Mans circuit. He immediately pulled away, preventing the rider from responding. Thanks to his 25 points, he now lies within one point of the overall standings leader, led by the rider from Rimini. Another Aprilia, Ai Ogura, joined the Noale factory duo on the podium. For the Japanese rider from the Trackhouse MotoGP Team, who had already come close in Austin but was halted by a technical issue, this is his first time in the premier class.
The start
As soon as the lights went out, Bezzecchi was the most consistent, taking the lead followed by Pedro Acosta (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing), Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP), and Fabio Di Giannantonio (Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team). Martin had gotten a good start, but in the first braking point, when the riders fanned out, he had to err on the side of caution. He thus found himself in seventh place. In the early stages, the rider with the most momentum seemed to be Francesco Bagnaia, fifth. On the second lap, the Ducati Lenovo Team rider passed his teammate Di Giannantonio to move into fourth place. In fifth, he overtook Quartararo, and Acosta in seventh. He then set off in pursuit of Bezzecchi, who had a roughly one-second advantage over him.
The second half of the race
The front row remained stable until the second half of the race, when the Aprilias began to flex their muscles. On lap 16 of 27, while trying to stay in touch with Bezzecchi, Bagnaia crashed at the first chicane, prematurely ending a disastrous weekend for the Ducati Lenovo Team, which had lost Marc Marquez yesterday (a broken foot in a crash in the Sprint). Martin, who was climbing back to fourth at the time and thus promoted one position, was setting his sights on Acosta, whom he overtook two laps later, on lap 18.
At that point, the gap separating the top two, on the same bike and wearing the same colors, was well over a second. Martin managed to close the gap and mounted the decisive attack with three laps to go, leaving the Romagnola rider with a new worry: Bezzecchi had to guard his back against Ogura, who wasn't very close but was threatening, with a strong pace in the final stages.
Ogura's Sunday.
The Japanese rider, who started from the center of the third row alongside Martin (the Spaniard started one spot further up), had been yo-yoing at the start of the race, oscillating between sixth and eighth place. Then, a comeback culminated on the podium, with Joan Mir (who crashed while running sixth), Quartararo (sixth at the finish), and Di Giannantonio, who found himself caught up with Acosta towards the end, among his victims.
The Roman snatched fourth place from the KTM rider with two corners to go. He thus confirmed his position as the fastest rider on a Ducati.
The top ten in MotoGP
also included Enea Bastianini (Red Bull KTM Tech3), seventh after starting 13th, Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse MotoGP Team), Fermin Aldeguer (BK8 Gresini Racing MotoGP) and Luca Marini (Honda HRC Castrol).
