2024 Solidarity Barcelona MotoGP: Bagnaia keeps title hopes alive with sprint win
Bagnaia rolls championship to Sundayꦆ’s grand prix after sprint win
Francesco Bagnaia has kept his 2024 MotoGP title hopes alive with victory🅠 in the Solidarity Grand Prix sprint race as championship leader Jorge Martin was th☂ird.
With 24 points splitting Martin at the head of the standings from Bagnaia, the Pramac rider needed to outscore his rival ꧒by just two points on Saturday to be crowned champion.
But Bagnaia converted pole position into his seventh sprint of the season, while team-mate Enea Bastianini mugged Martin on the last lap to demote him to📖 third.
It means the pair go into�🥃� Sunday’s grand prix split by 19 points now, with Martin needing to finish at least ninth to win the championship.
Bastianini grabbed the holesho𓃲t into Turn 1 from seventh on the grid, though Bagnaia swooped up his inside through Turn 3 to head the pack.
Martin slotted into third after the opening melee, while Ped🦩rꦇo Acosta - who briefly ran in the podium places - lost his Tech3 GASGAS’ front fairing after contact with Marc Marquez.
Bagnaia led Bastianini by 0.4s over the line after two laps, before Martin threw h🀅is Pramac Ducati underneath him to take second into Turn 1.
Bastianini would retake sඣecond from Martin at the same place a lap later, with the pair trading the pace on the 🦹fifth tour.
Martin squeezed Bastianini to the outsid🍒e of Turn🍸 1, which brought the likes of Alex Marquez, Aleix Espargaro and Franco Morbidelli into play.
This squabbling also gave Bagnaia a 1.3s꧂ lead, which would only come down in the final laps as the reigning champion ensured his vital sprint victory.
He ꧃took the chequered flag 0.942s clear of Bastianini, who snatched second from Martin at Turn 5 on the fi🍸nal lap.
Espargaro was fourth on the first of the Aprilia⛎s having started second, and celebrated his penultimate MotoGP race in frontꦍ of his home fans with a cooldown lap on one of his old 125cc machines.
Alex Marquez completed the top five after a late mistake at Turn 10 dropp๊ed him off the back of Bastian🍌ini.
He headed Morbidelli (Pramac), while M🌊arc Marquez was seventh♍ after his lap one contact with Acosta.
Marco Bezzecc🌳hi wa♒s eighth for VR46 Ducati, while Brad Binder came from 18th on the grid to take the final point in ninth ahead of Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo.
Top Honda w♒as Johann Zarco in 11th, while Michele Pirro won the contest of the test riders for VR46 in 21st ahead of Honda’s Stefan Bradl.
Acosta retired after afte♌r his lap one tangle with Marquez.
