What a race, what drama and uncertainty right to the end! The Indian GP was full of emotion and today it was Marco Bezzecchi who dominated the race, where Francesco Bagnaia crashed, and Fabio Quartararo finished on the podium… with Jorge Martin almost giving up second place on the last lap.
Everything was in place at the Buddh circuit for sunday’s first MotoGP race: Marco Bezzechi started from pole position, with Jorge Martin and Francesco Bagnaia in first.
A curiosity: the three riders on the front row of the grid had different tyre selections.
And right from the start, Martin was the strongest, and he took the lead straight away, with the first few moments of the race without any chaos, this time in the first corner: only a few riders extended their trajectory a little, but without crashes.
It wasn’t until the first corner that Bagnaia moved into the lead, with Bezzecchi then moving into the lead on the first lap.
Top five after the first three laps: Bezzecchi, Bagnaia, Martin, Marc Marquez and Fabio Quartararo. The best rider on a KTM was Brad Binder (eighth), with Aleix Espargaro the best on an Aprilia, in ninth.
Augusto Fernández, meanwhile, was the first to abandon the race as initial reports indicated a problem with his bike.
With 16 laps to go Marquez, who was in fourth, crashed on the first lap but resumed the race in a distant 16th place behind Miguel Oliveira. 3.041s divided the spaniard from the portuguese.
Bezzechi remained at the front of the race and with a comfortable margin over Martín, second: 3.324s, with Bagnaia in turn 0.533s behind Martin. Quartararo was fourth after Marquez’s crash, and Joan Mir kept Honda’s representation in the top five alive.
Eight laps into the race, that was the top ten:
A little further down, Marc Márquez was already 15th, with Oliveira dropping to 16th. Pol Espargaró was next in Márquez’s sights: 0.190s separated the two former team-mates.
A. Espargaro was the next to have problems with his bike. The spaniard was 19th and still riding, but away from everyone and everything, with what looked like another mechanical problem, which would be confirmed shortly afterwards: the spaniard had, like Miguel Oliveira yesterday, a problem with the gearbox on his RS-GP.
As far as the race lead was concerned, Bezzecchi remained very comfortably in front with a 4.5s lead over Martín, with Bagnaia only… 0.040s. Quartararo was fourth and had Bagnaia at 1.727s.
Unsurprisingly, Bagnaia confirmed the overtake on Martin and… Quartararo was also gaining time on the #89.
With eight laps to go… disaster for Bagnaia. Shortly after taking second place, he lost control of his motorbike and crashed. Martin was second again and Quartararo was provisionally on the podium.
With seven laps to go, this was the top five: Bezzecchi, Martin, Quartararo, Mir and Brad Binder.
Here’s the top ten with five laps to go, with one highlight: Marc Marquez was already inside the top ten:
Seconds later and with part of the zip of his protective suit open, Martin lost a few tenths to close his suit, which allowed Quartararo to get closer. 1.3s divided them in the fight for second place.
Two laps to go and Bezzecchi was in another championship, such was the gap to Martin, 6.850s. Quartararo remained in third place with a 3.616s lead over Binder, who had overtaken Mir earlier.
Fabio Di Giannantonio was also another casualty, dropping out of the race.
And the drama was reserved for the last lap: Martín made a mistake and went wide and Quartararo came into second place, Martin responded immediately and retook second place but the frenchman got marginally ahead of the Spaniard who… didn’t give up the position.
The race ended soon after with Bezzecchi taking the win and 44 points off the top of the world standings: