Marc Marquez gains strength again as candidate to win the MotoGP Championship after this San Marino GP 2024. The ’93’ achieved his second consecutive victory in Sunday’s race and a 5th place in Saturday’s sprint race. Results that place him only 53 points from the leadwhile Jorge Martin has lost 19 points of those who had advantage over Pecco due to a serious strategic errorthe fight for the world championship is getting very tight and is becoming more and more interesting. Let’s now break down everything that happened during the 2024 San Marino GP.
The fight for pole position at the 2024 San Marino GP
The current champion, Pecco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo) recorded the fastest time in MotoGP qualifying for the San Marino Grand Prix, taking an impressive pole in Q2 with a time of 1:30.304unattainable for his VR46 Academy colleagues. Franco Morbidelli (Prima Pramac Racing) secured the second positionhis first row since the 2021 Spanish GP, while Marco Bezzecchi (Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team) completed the top trio on the starting grid for the 2024 San Marino GP.
Jorge Martin (Prima Pramac Racing) achieved a solid fourth position in the standings, closely followed by Pedro Acosta (Red Bull GASGAS Tech3). Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) rounded out the second row, while Alex Marquez (Gresini Racing MotoGP) took seventh. Enea Bastianini (Ducati Lenovo Team) was eighth, and Marc Márquez (Gresini Racing MotoGP), who crashed at Turn 15 in the final minutes, finished ninth. Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Team), Maverick Viñales (Aprilia Racing) and Jack Miller (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) completed the fourth row of the grid.
2024 San Marino GP Sprint Race
Jorge Martin increased his leadership in the championship after winning the Tissot Sprint at the San Marino GP, beating the local favourite, Pecco Bagnaiaand achieving a 26-point lead in the overall standings. Martín, who was coming off six consecutive second places in the last three Grand Prix, took off like a rocket from fourth position and immediately took the lead, relegating Bagnaia took second place. Franco Morbidelli completed the podiumgetting his first top 3 in this sprint race format in the 2024 San Marino GP.
From the start, Martín, Bagnaia and Morbidelli set the pace, with more than a second and a half advantage over the rest of the field. Bastianini, who was running fourth, began to close the gap on the top three with 9 laps to go, looking to fight for a place on the podium. Meanwhile, Brad Binder and Pedro Acosta were engaged in an intense battle for positions, which allowed Jack Miller and Marc Márquez to close the gap. On the other hand, Fabio Quartararo managed to get into the points zone, giving his team some relief after having gone directly to Q2.
With two laps to go, Martin maintained a comfortable one-second lead over Bagnaia, while Morbidelli was a second and a half behind the Italian. A small mistake by the Pramac driver allowed Bastianini to get close enough to try an overtake without success, as he went off the track after failing to close the line correctly.
Bastianini finished fourth, while Marquez overtook Acosta in the famous ‘curvone’ in an impressive maneuver. At around 300 km/h, the number ’93’ slipped inside Acosta, taking advantage of the fact that the Murcia native had made a slight throttle cut to avoid going off the green. Without a doubt, that was the overtaking of the race. Binder, Miller and Quartararo completed the points, with Álex Márquez inside the Top 10 of the sprint race at the 2024 San Marino GP.
Flag-to-flag Sunday at the 2024 San Marino GP
At the conclusion of the main race of the 2024 San Marino GP, Marc Marquez He had made history by becoming the first rider since Marco Melandri in 2005 to achieve two consecutive victories with the Gresini team. This victory, added to his overwhelming performance in the last Aragon GP, puts him just 53 points behind the championship lead. The podium was completed by the Ducati Lenovo Team riders, Pecco Bagnaia and Enea Bastianiniwhile Jorge Martín, after a strategic bet that turned out to be wrong, finished in 15th positionwhich reduced his lead over Bagnaia to just 7 points.
The race started under complicated conditions due to rainwhich forced to show the white flag just before the lights went out. Bagnaia started in first position, followed by Jorge Martín, Franco Morbidelli and Pedro Acosta.
The battle to catch up with the leading group was intense, with Enea Bastianini, Marc Márquez and Jack Miller fighting for sixth place. Martin was close to touching Bagnaia in his attempt to overcome it, but avoided contact at the last moment. However, Acosta He was not so lucky and, after a clash with Morbidelli, lost part of the aerodynamics front of your motorcycle and shortly after he fell to the groundbeing left out of the fight for the podium at the 2024 San Marino GP.
As the race progressed, the rain intensifiedwhich caused Morbidelli to fall with 21 laps remaining. This was when Jorge Martín decided to enter the pits to make the change to the bike with the ‘wet’ tyres. Meanwhile, Marc Marquez He took advantage of the unbeatable track conditions for him and took the leadwith Bagnaia in second position and Miller third. However, the rain began to subside and the riders who had made the first bike change, including Martín, had to return to the pits to a second “flag-to-flag”which further complicated their race strategy in this 2024 San Marino GP.
Marc Marquezlittle by little, managed to save a one second lead over Bagnaiawhile Bastianini remained in third placefour seconds behind. With the podium practically decided and the chasing group more than six seconds behind, Marquez consolidated his victoryBinder and Bezzecchi completed the Top 5, while Álex Márquez crossed the line in sixth position, followed by Quartararo, Miller, Di Giannantonio and Pol Espargaró. Jorge Martinseverely handicapped by his strategy decision, He finished 15th and scored one point. Possibly one of the most frustrating of his career.
This result of the 2024 San Marino GP leaves the championship red hot, with Martin still as leader, but with only 7 points advantage over Bagnaia. The riders are now preparing for the next round at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli, where the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix will be held in two weeks.
