VOLUME ISSUE MARCH , P93
BY NEIL MORRISON
PHOTOGRAPHY BY GOLD & GOOSE
T
here was enough in the
Qatar performances of Marc
Marquez (Gresini Ducati) and
Pedro Acosta (Tech3 GasGas) to
suggest the current MotoGP hege-
mony won't last forever. Yet Pecco
Bagnaia (Lenovo Ducati) under-
scored his intentions to remain top
of the pile as he started his second
title defense in emphatic fashion
under the Lusail floodlights.
Bagnaia was largely responsible
for taking the air out of this cur-
tain raiser, making its final 10 laps
something of an anticlimax. Was
this really a new year, is Bagnaia re-
ally a year older and is he really rid-
ing the Ducati GP24 rather than the
GP23? There were so many aspects
of his weekend performance in Qa-
tar that mirrored 2023. Friday was
disappointing and Saturday was
underwhelming. But, as he did on
seven occasions last year, he saved
his devastating best for the feature
race when Brad Binder never got
a sniff, even if he was never more
than 1.3 seconds back.
OPENER;