three-tenths of a second adrift
of Bagnaia, who took one of his
finest-ever GP wins and his third
in a row at Jerez.
"It was simply fantastic,"
Bagnaia enthused. "We needed
such a win, not only for my
-
self but also for the team and
everybody working with me. It
was a very intense race, and it
was crucial to make it to the
lead on lap one. The overtake
on the outside was really a nice
one, I enjoyed it a lot. The race
was decided in the last five
laps: when Marc closed the
gap, I only tried to wait and fend
off his attacks straight away,
and after his second attempt,
I decided to push as hard as I
could in order to create a safety
margin up to the finish line. I
managed to set the fastest lap
at the end, and everything went
the lead coming, as expected, at
the Stadium section right-hand
-
er on lap 21.
Bagnaia, however, was having
none of it. He pulled an aggres-
sive undercut on Marquez and
put the red Ducati's front wheel
right under the blue Ducati, the
two riders clashing hard and
leaving Marquez with Bagnaia's
tire stain all down the right side
of his leathers.
Bagnaia was back in the lead
and the battle was on. A lap later,
Marquez tried again at the turn 10
Stadium corner and again he ran
wide, Bagnaia retaking the lead.
The World Champion then
produced a stunning new race
lap record on 23-lap-old tires of
1:37.449 to break the charge
of Marquez with two laps left.
Marquez was beaten fair and
square, settling for second,
The dry conditions of the Sun
-
day GP meant it was nowhere
near as frantic as the Sprint race
in terms of retirements, but that
didn't mean there wasn't oodles
of drama.
The biggest plot twist came on
lap 11, as leader Martin braked
for the Dani Pedrosa turn-six
corner at the end of the back
straight. The diminutive Spaniard
got it all wrong, losing the front
and not only crashing out but
also seeing a possible 47-point
lead in the title go up in smoke.
Bagnaia now took control, but
Marquez wasn't done yet, slicing
through on Bezzecchi at the
Pedrosa corner and setting off
after Bagnaia, who was by now
1.1 seconds up the road.
Gradually the number 93 of
Marquez closed down the num
-
ber one of Bagnaia, the move for
ROUND 4 / APRIL 26-28, 2024
CIRCUITO DE JEREZ – ANGEL NIETO / JEREZ DE LA FRONTERA, SPAIN
MOTOGP I FIM MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
P84
Jack Miller had a
torrid time in Spain,
crashing in the Sprint
and being punted by
Franco Morbidelli (21)
in the Sunday GP.
