title hopes, lunged up the inside
of Marquez at turn four.
Depending on which ver-
sion of events prefer, either
Marquez saw Martin and let
off his brakes (Martin's view),
or Marquez was hit by Martin
(Marquez's view), but either way,
the result was the same. In his
last race in Repsol Honda col-
ors, Marquez was launched into
orbit in a violent high-side and
Martin ran off, crashing out of
the race and the world champi-
onship.
Francesco Bagnaia was thus
assured the title regardless of
the result, but he wanted to win
the title from the top step of the
podium. And to do that, he had
to fight off two nagging KTMs of
Miller and Binder.
after clipping Di Giannantonio in
much the same fashion in Qatar,
Martin ran wide and dropped
way down to eighth place.
From there, it was always
going to be an uphill struggle for
the title underdog. Martin quick
-
ly disposed of Alex Marquez,
then set after Vinales, passing
him twice on lap five and twice
running wide, with Vinales push-
ing past each time.
On lap six, however, the title
was decided.
Martin shoved his annoy-
ance on the number 12 Aprilia
out of the way at turn two as
just ahead of him, Marquez and
Zarco got into it together. That
caused Marquez to run wide,
and Martin, desperate to claw
back ground and save his world
get his elbows out to fend off
the two factory KTM's of Jack
Miller and Binder. Martin pushed
through into second by turn two.
The fireworks had already
started by turn three as Mar
-
quez barged Bezzecchi out of
the race, the Italian tumbling
through the gravel trap at high
speed and lucky to escape
injury. Marquez inexplicably also
escaped any penalty from the
MotoGP stewards.
The pivotal moment in the
2023 MotoGP World Champion
-
ship happened at the start of
lap three as Martin got sucked
into the slipstream of Bagnaia's
Ducati at turn one, clipping the
back of Bagnaia at over 150
mph. Both managed to stay
upright, but just as Bagnaia did
ROUND 20 / NOVEMBER 24-26, 2023
RICARDO TORMO CIRCUIT / VALENCIA, SPAIN
MOTOGP I FIM MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
P56
The moment it all came to a
grinding halt for Martin (89) after
he tangled with Marquez (93), who
is about to be launched into orbit.
