Francesco Bagnaia won out in an almighty tussle with Marc Marquez to win the Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez after Pramac’s Jorge Martin was a shock early exit with a crash from the lead.
Breathless, enthralling action delighted a capacity crowd in Spain as Marquez came up short in a dogged pursuit of the reigning MotoGP champion with VR46 rider Marco Bezzecchi finishing a distant third.
Polesitter Marquez was looking to bounce back from a disappointing Sprint which saw him fall from the lead on a damp patch of circuit, demoting him to sixth.
Martin meanwhile was looking to extend his championship lead and back up his Saturday Sprint victory.
Marquez and Martin lined up on the front row with Bezzecchi sitting between them in second ahead of 25 laps of the Jerez circuit.
The Gresini rider led away from the start with Martin poaching second from Bezzecchi before Francesco Bagnaia lunged from fourth to second at Turn 6.
Bagnaia took the lead at the final corner before Marquez fought back into Turn 1 at the start of Lap 2, but the move didn’t come off and Martin took advantage to slot behind the reigning champion and take second place.
The #1 rider then went wide into the final corner at the end of the second lap allowing Martin and Marquez through, albeit temporarily in the latter’s case as the Gresini rider struggled to get the power down with his GP23 Ducati, allowing Bagnaia back through into second.
Three laps down and Ducatis occupied the top five as Alex Marquez led the likes of KTM’s Brad Binder by a half-second advantage.
Pedro Acosta meanwhile was struggling in the middle of the pack, looking to bounce back from a fast crash in the Sunday morning warm-up but a slight shove by Johann Zarco into Turn 5 didn’t help the GasGas rider progress as quickly as he would have wanted.
The race wasn’t the war of attrition that the Sprint turned out to be, but that did nothing to help Dani Pedrosa, third place on Saturday and the first to tumble out on Sunday.
Martin and Bagnaia held station as the front two five laps in as Bezzecchi moved up to third at Marc Marquez’s expense, but the Gresini man was unfazed, setting the fastest lap of the early stages in the fifth tour of the Jerez circuit.
The pace was pushed further a lap later by Martin, who took the fastest lap from Marquez as he fought to keep Bagnaia at bay.
Still, the top two sought to pull away from Bezzecchi and Marquez, assuming a six-tenth advantage over the riders running Ducati’s 2023 machinery.
By Lap 10 the gap between second and third had grown to approximately eight-tenths with it looking increasingly likely to be a two-way fight for victory between last year’s title contenders.
On the same lap, Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro made a hesitant move on Zarco at Turn 5, taking the pair out of the race in the process.
Lap 11 and drama intervened both in the race and the championship picture as race leader and number one in the Riders’ standings Martin lost the front on entry to Turn 6.
The Spaniard clung to his bike, eyes up the road as he watched Bagnaia assume the lead.
Martin’s consistency had been his ally before this point, but he sat infield a dejected figure after the surprise off.
This left Bagnaia leading by eight tenths of a second over Bezzecchi with Marquez approximately half a second further back in third as the field came around to start Lap 13.
Bezzecchi went wide at Turn 13 before coming round to start Lap 14, allowing Marquez to close right in on the Italian rider.
The VR46 man was truly under threat now and Marquez pounced to take second into Turn 6.
Marquez then sought to claw back Bagnaia’s advantage, eating a couple of tenths into the lead shortly after taking second.
That lead stood at one second with 11 laps to go with Marquez lapping fractionally faster than his rival ahead.
Another fastest lap for Marquez brought the gap down to three-quarters of a second with 10 tours of the Jerez circuit left to go.
Heading into preseason fans hoped for a Bagnaia/Marquez duel and it started to look like the Jerez crowd would get to witness one unfold.
But Bagnaia responded with a fastest race lap of his own on Lap 17 showing just how difficult it is to match the reigning champion when he’s leading on a Sunday.
Further back on Lap 18, Franco Morbidelli misjudged a move for 11th on Jack Miller at Turn 5 taking both out of the race.
Marquez brought the gap to Bagnaia to under half a second with six laps to go with tensions running high in both the factory Ducati garage and the Gresini camp.
Coming to the end of Lap 20, Marquez was smelling blood, parking his GP23 right on the rear wheel of Bagnaia.
The fight for the lead was on courtesy of a new race lap record by the Gresini rider.
Lap 21 and Marquez and Bagnaia went side by side through Turns 9, 10 and 11 with the latter maintaining his lead by the smallest of margins as the pair touched in what was becoming an enthralling battle.
The same occurred a lap later with Bagnaia once again being able to fend off his feisty Spanish rival.
Having fended off Marquez’s charge, Bagnaia broke the race lap record on Lap 23, but the Spaniard still wasn’t out of contention.
However, with one lap to go there was half a second between the pair and it looked as if the matter was settled.
And settled it was as Bagnaia rose to Marquez’s challenge to take undoubtedly one of his finest wins to date.
Marquez claimed a well-earned second with Bezzecchi 3.5s back in third.
Alex Marquez took fourth position with Bagnaia’s factory Ducati team-mate Enea Bastianini completing the top five.
Brad Binder bounced back from a disappointing Sprint to finish as the lead KTM rider in sixth, ahead of VR46’s Fabio Di Giannantonio in seventh.
Trackhouse Racing’s Miguel Oliveira did well to finish inside the top-10 with eighth ahead of COTA double-winner Maverick Vinales in ninth.
Rookie Acosta fought from the midfield after a slow start to complete the top-10 positions.
Oliveira’s Trackhouse team-mate Raul Fernandez finished 11th with Joan Mir the leading Honda rider in 12th.
Alex Rins was the lead Yamaha performer with a 13th-place finish, ahead of LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami and Fabio Quartararo.
Honda test rider Stefan Bradl led factory rider Luca Marini with the duo finishing 16th and 17th respectively.
Augusto Fernandez failed to take a double-long lap penalty and was handed a drive-through as a result and his race ended with an early retirement.
Miller, Morbidelli, Lorenzo Savadori, Martin, Zarco, Espargaro and Pedrosa rounded out the riders who failed to make the chequered flag.
