Jorge Martín extends his advantage over Bagnaia in Bastianini’s sprint victory

The Spanish rider Jorge Martín (Ducati) has strengthened his lead in the overall MotoGP standings in the Motorcycle World Championship after finishing second this Saturday, just behind the Italian Enea Bastianini (Ducati), in the Grand Sprint race. Thailand Prize, penultimate round of the championship, in which his main rival, Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati), was third.

Starting from third place on the grid, the Madrid native recovered positions after a bad start and managed to establish himself ahead of ‘Pecco’, whom he now leads by 22 points in the provisional general classification and who no longer depends on himself to win the World. Thus, Martín is more leader with 433 units, compared to the 411 of the transalpine and the 351 of Marc Márquez (Ducati), fourth this Saturday.

“Today the pace was very crazy; when I saw my pace, I gave it my all. Recovering places from sixth to second was not easy at all. We achieved our goal today. I don’t want to think about mathematics, the challenge is to finish as fast as possible. possible forward,” Martín highlighted after the race to DAZN. “It was an overtaking with a scalpel, it is very difficult to pass ‘Pecco’; I saw that he did not open like other times and I got involved,” he added about his action on Bagnaia.

All in a race in which Bastianini, as soon as the traffic lights went out, snatched the pole position from Bagnaia, who hours before had guaranteed himself pole position. Meanwhile, the championship leader fell to fifth place, behind Márquez and Pedro Acosta (KTM); The fall of the Murcian with ten laps to go made things easier for the rider from San Sebastián de los Reyes, who had already managed to overtake him.

Just one lap later, he also overtook the man from Cervera to place third and begin the chase, at a fast lap pace, for the two-time world champion. With seven laps to go, he overtook him and his pace allowed him to consolidate second position. However, Bastianini was too far away and could not prevent his victory.

Thus, ‘The Beast’ led the Ducati ‘top 8’ at the Chang International Circuit, with Márquez finishing fourth just ahead of his brother Alex (Ducati). Joan Mir (Repsol Honda) finished out of the points, thirteenth; Raúl Fernández (Aprilia), fourteenth; Aleix Espargaró (Aprilia), fifteenth; Augusto Fernández (KTM), sixteenth; Alex Rins (Yamaha), seventeenth; and Maverick Viñales (Aprilia), twentieth.