Pramac rider Jorge Martin clinched his maiden MotoGP title with a safe third-place finish in the Barcelona Grand Prix, while Francesco Bagnaia had to concede defeat despite scoring an 11th win of 2024.
Martin arrived at Sunday’s finale in Spain with a 19-point lead in the championship over factory Ducati rival Bagnaia and only needed to finish inside the top nine to lift the trophy.
Although Bagnaia led away from pole position and controlled the race at the front, Martin was able to settle back in third position and still take the title by 10 points.
He became the first rider to be crowned champion on a satellite bike in the MotoGP era, with Bagnaia’s mentor Valentino Rossi being the last rider to achieve that feat during the final 500cc season in 2001.
When the 24-lap got underway at Barcelona, Bagnaia made the perfect start to lead into Turn 1, with Martin jumping from fourth to grab second position behind his title rival.
Gresini’s Marquez slotted into third position and immediately started piling pressure on Martin, who began to fall behind leader Bagnaia.
At the start of lap 2, Marquez pulled off a clean move on Martin into Turn 1, with the latter appearing content to drop to third position — knowing it would be more than enough to seal the title.
Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Marquez, involved in his own scrap with Enea Bastianini for third place in the standings, then set about chasing Bagnaia, who had pulled out a small lead by then.
But the Spaniard didn’t attempt a move for the lead in the first half of the race, even when the factory Ducati rider made a small error at Turn 5 on lap 10.
Bagnaia continued to control the pace until lap 15 of 24, when he posted a stunning lap to pull half a second clear of Marquez.
The six-time champion managed to close the gap again as the race drew to a close, but Bagnaia did enough to hang on to the win.
Martin didn’t bother chasing the leading duo for victory, cruising more than two seconds behind them to take third and claim his world championship in any class since 2018 with a podium.
Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro acted as the perfect rear-gunner for his ally Martin and looked set to take fourth place until Alex Marquez on the other Gresini bike snatched fourth position away from him on the penultimate lap.
That meant Espargaro capped off an incredible career in which he turned Aprilia into a race-winning force with a fifth-place finish on his home turf.
Aleix Espargaro, Aprilia Racing Team, Alex Marquez, Gresini Racing
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
Factory Ducati rider Bastianini was also battling with Espargaro and the younger Marquez, but a mistake at Turn 2 on lap 8 forced him to take the escape road, leaving him seventh at the finish.
It meant that Marc Marquez won his duel with Bastianini for third place in the championship, as he prepares to take the latter’s place at the factory Ducati team in 2025.
KTM’s charge in Barcelona was led by factory rider Brad Binder, who completed another impressive from 18th on the grid to claim sixth, overtaking Bastianini on the final lap.
Binder also benefited from stablemate Pedro Acosta having a tough day in Barcelona, the 20-year-old rookie suffering a late drop in grip on his GasGas-branded RC16.
Acosta eventually finished 10th, behind Pramac’s Franco Morbidelli and VR46 rider Marco Bezzecchi.
Fabio Quartararo finished a solid 11th for Yamaha, leading future team-mates Miguel Oliveira (Trackhouse Aprilia) and Jack Miller (KTM).
Although Honda had shown strong pace in practice in the run-up to the weekend, only one of its riders finished inside the points, as Johann Zarco took 14th on the LCR bike ahead of Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales.
Factory HRC rider Joan Mir was the only retiree from the race, as 22 of the 23 riders took the chequered flag.