Francesco Bagnaia scored victory over Enea Bastianini and title rival Jorge Martin in the Barcelona Grand Prix sprint to take the championship to the final MotoGP race of 2024 on Sunday.
Factory Ducati rider Bagnaia recovered from a relatively poor getaway to score a convincing victory in Saturday’s half-distance race and take five points off Martin, who lost second place to Bastianini on the final lap.
It means the two title contenders are now separated by 19 points in the standings with a total of 25 on offer in the grand prix on Sunday.
When the 12-lap sprint got underway, Bastianini made the best start from eighth position to grab the holeshot into Turn 1, with Martin also briefly streaking clear of polesitter Bagnaia before the two-time champion retaliated under braking for the right-hander.
Martin launched another attack over Bagnaia into Turn 3, but Bagnaia not only managed to fend him off but also dispatched team-mate Bastianini to return to the front.
This left Martin and Bastianini to squabble for second position, with the Pramac rider jumping ahead at the start of lap 3 before Bastianini bounced back on the next tour to reinstate the status quo.
Their battle was decided on lap 5 when Martin lunged at Bastianini at Turn 1 and made the move stick, despite both riders running deep and bringing a number of chasing riders into play.
Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team
Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images
While Bastianini had to immediately turn his attention towards the other Pramac of Franco Morbidelli, Martin was able to put daylight between himself and the two Italians to breathe a sigh of relief.
By this point, Bagnaia had pulled away by more than a second over the remainder of the pack, effectively ending any chances of Martin putting up a fightback in the second half of the race.
Bagnaia’s lead did drop to a second in the final stages of the race, but Martin himself came under pressure from the other factory Ducati of Bastianini on the last lap.
Martin covered the inside line into the opening sequence of corners, but Bastianini was able to pull off a clean move into the tricky Turn 5, dropping him down to third place.
There were no other changes on the final lap, with Bagnaia taking a crucial win to keep his title hopes alive and Martin following Bastianini to take third place.
Aprilia’s Aleix Aleix Espargaro tumbled to eighth on the opening lap, having started second, but was able to recover to fourth at the chequered flag.
Espargaro benefitted from a late error from Gresini rider Alex Marquez, who ran wide at Turn 10 on the penultimate lap and dropped to fifth.
Morbidelli finished sixth after challenging Bastianini for a podium spot at one stage, while six-time MotoGP champion Marc Marquez also had a difficult race en route to seventh after his Gresini GP23 bike clipped the Tech3 GasGas machine of Pedro Acosta on the opening lap.
Acosta was forced to peel into the pits to retire from the race with damage to his bike, leaving KTM’s Brad Binder as the best finisher for the Pierer Mobility Group in ninth.
A rapid launch from 18th on the grid helped Binder to pick up the final point in the sprint, finishing just behind VR46’s Marco Bezzecchi.
The battle between the Japanese manufacturers was won by Yamaha as Fabio Quartararo took 10th ahead of the LCR Honda of Johann Zarco.