seconds to Bagnaia, who now
had 6.2 seconds to Martin,
making for a wholly unexciting
finish.
Regardless, Bastianini thor-
oughly earned his win after a
shocking season, which started
at the very first spring race of
the year in Portugal when Luca
Marini crashed into him and
broke his shoulder blade.
"It's fantastic and emotional
to get back to winning after a
difficult period," Bastianini said.
"Today, I didn't want anything
else; I just wanted to win. I didn't
care about the rest, and I knew I
could do it. In the race, I pushed
Lap five saw Joan Mir crash
out of yet another race, which
meant 50 crashes for Repsol
Honda riders in 2023. Half a lap
later, Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia
Racing) joined him for his fifth
crash of the weekend.
As the laps wore down, Mar
-
quez refused to let Bastianini
out of his sights, but he could
do nothing about the Italian's
incredible consistency, Bastianini
never letting Marquez get close
enough for a crack at the lead.
Bagnaia was 1.5 seconds off
the leading duo, Martin another
two seconds back, with Bezzec
-
chi, Miller, Quartararo, Binder and
Di Giannantonio all squabbling
over fifth until Binder's front tire
cried "no more" and sent the
South African south into the
gravel trap.
By the last lap, it was spread
out like peanut butter as Bas
-
tianini gapped Marquez by 1.7
seconds, who in turn had 1.6
VOLUME ISSUE NOVEMBER , P75
MARQUEZ NOT
MAKING ANY FRIENDS
Marc Marquez didn't make many
friends on Saturday. Franco
Morbidelli was less than im-
pressed with his following antics
in qualifying. He then had contact
with several riders on the first
lap, including Fabio Quartararo,
before crashing out. "He was
playing bowling today," joked Pol
Espargaro before stating, "He
was way over the limit." Asked
if Marquez's antics in qualify-
ing crossed the line, Morbidelli
explained how on-track aggres-
sion has changed in modern-day
MotoGP. "Back in the day, the
non-respect zone, the non-re-
spect moments in MotoGP were
maybe the last three laps of the
race. Now, the amount of time is
spread out throughout the whole
weekend, from the first lap to the
last. There is a lot of pressure,
and there is no respect for the
opponent."
Briefly...
