nearly half a second off his lap
time and immediately breaking
the Bezzecchi challenge.
Fans across the world dared to
dream that Pedrosa might actually
pull a fairytale win by one-third's
race distance as the man known
as "The Little Samurai" was con
-
sistently the fastest rider on the
track, closing right up to the back
of Bezzecchi as he, in turn, closed
on Bagnaia, the World Champion
hanging on by a thread as the
pain from his injured right leg, on
a track with 10 right-hand corners,
began to take hold.
Bezzecchi swept past Bagnaia
at turn eight with 10 laps to go to
take second place, and Pedrosa
was now coming as well, hold
-
ing up KTM honors after Binder
crashed out of fourth place at
turn 14 on lap eight.
With four laps to go, Bagnaia
was holding Pedrosa at bay by
0.6 seconds. Bezzecchi was
now under two seconds away
from Martin, but it was too little
too late, with the latter control-
ling his advantage nicely as he
powered towards completing the
perfect weekend.
With two laps left, Pedrosa
made one final charge for the
podium, but as he's proven so
many times in the past, Bagnaia
was impervious to attack, his
defensive skills thwarting any of
Pedrosa's advances.
Martin thus took the win by
1.3 seconds over Bezzecchi,
with Bagnaia holding grimly onto
third and having to be helped off
his machine by his mechanics in
parc ferme with pain etched all
over his face.
VOLUME ISSUE SEPTEMBER , P101
93 MARC MARQUEZ
10-7 MOTOGP
"For me, this was the best race of the
year alongside Le Mans. It's my best
Sunday of the season, I took the max-
imum that was available and passed
our target. Our rhythm was very good
until the soft rear option dropped a
little bit at the end, but this is normal.
In the end I was able to have some
good battles with the Aprilia riders
and [Luca] Marini. The objective is to
keep this going in the coming races.
Before that we have an important
test for the future, a first taste of what
2024 could hold. I'm looking forward
to seeing how the bike will be with
my riding style and then beginning to
work with the engineers."
MYOWNRACE
(Below) Bang, bang. Pedro Acosta
did his best Jorge Martin impression
with a dominant display in Moto2.
