Stadium section right-hander.
That promoted wonderkid
Pedro Acosta (Red Bull GasGas
Tech3), who started 10th, into
second place behind Martin and
due to the dreaded wet patches.
Half a lap later, it was all over
as Marc Marquez, trying to gap
Martin, dumped the Gresini
Ducati at, you guessed it, the
ROUND 4 / APRIL 26-28, 2024
CIRCUITO DE JEREZ – ANGEL NIETO / JEREZ DE LA FRONTERA, SPAIN
MOTOGP I FIM MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
P82
BAGNAIA-BINDER
CONTROVERSY
One fall that had nothing to do
with wet patches was that of the
reigning World Champion. Pecco
Bagnaia failed to score points
after he was collected by Brad
Binder at turn one on lap three.
The Italian was clearly riled by
Race Direction's decision not to
punish the South African soon
after. "Racing incident," he said,
heavy with irony. "This is the
decision by the Race Direction.
It's their job, and it's like this."
Pressed further, he offered, "To
overtake two riders on the [inside]
curb, you're out of the current
line." Binder argued his corner: "It
looked like the bike on the inside
was coming straight to me, and,
to be honest, I thought both were
going straight, so I turned in on
my normal line, and it looked like
to me he just got sandwiched
between the two bikes."
SPRINT RACE CHAOS
It's not an exaggeration to say
Saturday's Sprint was the most
chaotic to date. Nine riders failed
to finish, and 15 crashed overall—
a ludicrous number for a 12-lap
race. The reason was the track
hadn't dried out completely come
the race start, with wet patches
repeatedly catching riders out
at turn five, as well as eight and
nine. "If it's dry, it's okay, if it's
wet it's okay. But if it's mixed,
it's a piece of shit," were Pedro
Acosta's sentiments. "In turn
eight and nine, you were able to
see the patches but in turn five,
which is uphill, and has the sun,
you don't really know where the
patches are."
Briefly...
Aleix Espargaro
clatters into the back
of Johann Zarco,
taking both out of
Sunday's GP.
