Метка: French GP

Martin «doesn’t have anything to demonstrate» to Ducati after French GP win

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Martin emerged on top in an epic battle with fellow Ducati riders Francesco Bagnaia and Marc Marquez to win the French Grand Prix, extending his lead in the championship to 38 points after five rounds.

The win on Sunday completed a perfect weekend for the Spaniard, who topped practice on Friday, claimed pole position in qualifying and grabbed maximum points from the sprint race on Saturday.

The result couldn’t have come at a better time for the Pramac rider, with Ducati currently evaluating whether to promote him to the factory team next year in place of incumbent Enea Bastianini or sign six-time champion Marquez instead.

But Martin thinks his current performances will have no bearing on where he rides next year, as he feels his past results are already enough to justify a place along Bagnaia next year.

“I don’t think I have anything to demonstrate,” he said following his success at Le Mans.

“About my future, I can say that the things that will happen in the next races won’t change. Even if I win, even if I crash, I already did what I had to do and I am really happy about my performance.

Pressed further if his win on Sunday sent a big message to Ducati, he said: “For sure, it’s important I think, maybe it’s clearer. But I think it won’t change.

Photo by: Marc Fleury

“I am the same rider as yesterday, same rider as Thursday. If they have to take a decision they already have [enough to] choose, and whatever it is it will be good.

“I really want to go to the Ducati factory team but if they don’t want me for whatever reason that we don’t know, then I will give my talent to other people.”

Martin celebrated his triumph over Marquez and Bagnaia by smashing the visor on his GP24, with the broken glass falling on track as he approached the opening turn on the cool-down lap.

The 26-year-old admitted that he did have some doubts about his abilities going into the race, but was elated to showcase himself that he is currently the best rider in the field.

“All the riders have some doubts before starting a race,” he said. “I know I’m strong but sometimes I have too many doubts. Maybe I don’t know how good I am.

«When I crossed the finish line I was like, ‘who is the number 1? who is the number 1?’.”

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Marquez was «completely exhausted” when he reached Le Mans MotoGP win fight

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The Gresini Ducati rider endured a tough qualifying which saw him knocked out in Q1, though he recovered brilliantly in the sprint to finish second.

Marquez did the same again on Sunday, though took 17 laps to get into the podium places before closing down a two-second gap to catch eventual winner Jorge Martin and Francesco Bagnaia.

While finishing second after a last lap overtake on Bagnaia, Marquez admitted afterwards that he was “not convinced” he could fight for the win once he reached the leaders.

“Today I was not convinced, because when I arrived to them, I was completely exhausted,” Marquez said, scoring a second grand prix podium of 2024 on Gresini’s 1000th GP.

“I was pushing all the race, no time to relax, and then I arrived to them and I tried to attack.

“But then I said ‘hmm, I’m not feeling well now on the bike’.

“And I saw also Pecco had a good acceleration. So, it was difficult to find the point to overtake because also he was defending well on Turn 3.

“But on that last lap I said ‘I will be there to see if something happens’.

“I saw Pecco was not attacking Martin, so I go out well from that Turn 8 and in Turn 9 I tried. I was able to stop well.”

Marquez believes he would have stood a better chance at winning the French GP had he not got caught up in a “strange” battle for third with VR46 Ducati rider Fabio Di Giannantonio.

“That fight on those laps was strange because you need to understand sometimes which part of the race you are, and if some rider is coming from the back you cannot lose two seconds there because we lost 1.5s in that chicane with a contact; I had the position already,” he added.

“But I forget [this battle afterwards] and I kept going, and we did an amazing pace.

“It’s true that without that battle I had more chance because I would have more laps behind them. But that second place, today, was more than better.”

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Martin beats Marquez and Bagnaia in nail-biter

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Having dominated the sprint race on Saturday, Martin converted pole to a second grand prix victory of the 2024 season to open up a lead of 38 points in the championship.

Shadowing the factory Ducati of Bagnaia for much of the 27-lap contest, Martin made his decisive move on the 21st tour to take the lead.

Resisting immense pressure from Bagnaia over the final few laps, Martin’s victory was assured on the final tour when Marquez – who started 13th – moved into second at Turn 9.

Martin took the chequered flag 0.446 seconds clear of Marquez, with Bagnaia third, while Ducati team-mate Enea Bastianini recovered from a long lap penalty to fourth ahead of Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales.

Following his bike woes that ruled him out of the sprint on Saturday, Bagnaia nailed the launch of the line to grab the holeshot from Martin and Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro.

Marquez made another solid start from 13th on the grid to get up to eighth after the opening corners.

Bagnaia and Martin quickly put a few tenths between themselves and the battle for third, which was headed by Espargaro before VR46 Ducati rider Fabio Di Giannantonio passed him at Turn 8 on lap 10.

Espargaro quickly found himself swamped by team-mate Vinales and then Marquez, with the latter two swapping places on lap 14.

Marquez moved his Gresini Ducati ahead of Di Giannantonio at the Dunlop chicane at the start of lap 17, with the latter running through the chicane trying to defend third and earning himself a long lap penalty.

Bagnaia and Martin held a two-second gap over Marquez, whose pace was better at this phase of the race then theirs.

That gap shrunk to 1.3s at the start of lap 20 when Martin made his first attempt on Bagnaia’s lead at the Dunlop chicane, but couldn’t make the move stick.

When Martin finally found his way through on the reigning world champion on the following lap – again at Dunlop – Marquez was just 0.8s behind.

Marquez quickly got onto the rear of the lead battle and the trio broke away from Vinales behind, who would come under pressure from Bastianini late on.

Martin gave Bagnaia a sniff at retaking the lead at Dunlop on lap 25 when he ran deep, but the Pramac rider held firm.

He led onto the final lap and kept the door shut to Bagnaia, whose chances were ended when Marquez scythed past on the brakes into Turn 9.

This blew Martin’s lead up to 0.446s while Marquez ensured Bagnaia had no way to strike back as they took the chequered flag.

Bastianini was handed a long lap penalty for cutting the Turn 9/10 chicane when passing Espargaro for sixth on the 12th tour.

Quickly serving the penalty, Bastianini fought back to fourth ahead of Vinales and Di Giannantonio after the VR46 rider’s violation.

Franco Morbidelli was seventh on the second Pramac Ducati, marking his best grand prix result in 2024.

Brad Binder was eighth having started last on the factory KTM, with Espargaro and Gresini’s Alex Marquez rounding out the top 10.

The final points went to Trackhouse Racing’s Raul Fernandez, LCR Honda’s Johann Zarco, Tech3 GasGas rider Augusto Fernandez, Takaaki Nakagami (LCR) and Yamaha’s Alex Rins.

Luca Marini was the final classified runner in 16th on his factory Honda, with team-mate Joan Mir crashing out.

Home hero Fabio Quartararo was running inside the top eight when he fell off his Yamaha at Turn 9 on lap 17.

VR46’s Marco Bezzecchi registered his second race crash of the weekend when he slid out of seventh at Turn 6 on lap four, while Tech3 rookie Pedro Acosta went down on the previous tour.

KTM’s Jack Miller and Trackhouse Racing’s Miguel Oliveira also failed to make the finish.

MotoGP French GP — Race results:



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Martin’s 2024 MotoGP form giving him “some power” in contract talks

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Qualifying on pole with a new Le Mans lap record, Martin converted that to a dominant third sprint win of the 2024 season.

With Francesco Bagnaia retiring with bike issues and his factory Ducati team-mate Enea Bastianini only fourth, Martin is now 28 points clear in the championship.

This all comes as Martin’s 2025 future remains uncertain, with Ducati’s decision between him, Marc Marquez and Bastianini set for the Italian GP at the end of the month.

Earlier this week, Ducati general manager Gigi Dall’Igna told motogp.com that the marque has to “consider all of their history, not just 2024”.

Asked if he considers himself the leading Ducati rider right now, Martin responded: “Well, I don’t know. I am the leader [of the championship] so I guess till now I was the strongest.”

He added: “I think at the end of the season [is when I’ll start to think about the championship].

“For sure it’s important to be in the lead, but I think it will be interesting when we have the chance to win the championship.

“Till that moment, there is no sense to look at it. It’s nice. Since Portimao it was [that I’ve been leading], so more than one month being in the lead.

Jorge Martin, Pramac Racing

Jorge Martin, Pramac Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

“This means we are the strongest, this means also some power for contracts. I’m happy to be in the lead.”

While feeling confident going into Sunday’s grand prix, Martin admits Pramac has to find something to improve front edge grip after it proved worse in the sprint than expected.  

“So far, a perfect weekend,” he said.

“I am super happy. I think we did an amazing performance to the sprint. Tomorrow will be interesting to understand where we are on Sundays, but you also score points on Saturday, so it’s super important to be fast.

“I am confident, I think we have some good information for tomorrow’s race because I didn’t feel as [good] as this morning on the front.

“I was losing a bit on the edge grip, it was much less than this morning.”

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Ducati still chasing answers to «dangerous» French MotoGP sprint issue

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Bagnaia had qualified second behind championship leader Jorge Martin, but was down to 14th by the end of lap 1 following a dreadful start on his GP24.

Lacking the speed to mount any sort of recovery, the Italian then ran wide over the gravel at the exit of Turn 7 on the third lap, rejoining the track at the rear of the field.

With it clear by then that the problem he was suffering was significant, the reigning champion returned to the Ducati garage to retire from a race for the third time in 2024.

Bagnaia’s troubles followed a late crash in qualifying on Saturday morning, which forced him to switch to his second motorcycle for the 13-lap sprint.

But the Borgo Panigale marque still doesn’t understand what exactly went wrong with his spare bike, with work expected to continue overnight ahead of Sunday’s full-distance race at Le Mans.

“As soon as I started on the sighting lap I felt something strange and then in the warm-up lap I went wide in corner seven already in a strange way,” Bagnaia said.

“And [when I] started [the race], the bike had a really huge wheelie. Then it was very difficult to do more or less everything. I lost the front in corner six before going wide in corner seven, almost in acceleration, so something [was] wrong.

“I feel it was not working in the way I expect it to and it’s something that can happen.

“For tomorrow we will try to solve everything, but here we had to change the bike from the crash of this morning and the other way maybe was to re-adapt a bit.

“But my team is already checking everything. It’s not easy to understand when these kinds of things happen, but my team is so good and we will solve everything.”

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Bagnaia said he was left with no option but to return to the pitlane, as it was no longer safe to continue the race.

“I retired because something was not… it was dangerous,” he admitted. “I’m not the guy that wants to retire. Also to have any new information for tomorrow it was better to continue, but it was better to stop.”

With Bagnaia dropping out of contention early, Pramac rider Martin faced no real threat as he romped to his third sprint win of 2024 and cement his status as the early championship favourite.

Bagnaia, in turn, now faces a 29-point deficit to Martin in the riders’ standings, having also retired from a crash-filled sprint at Jerez a fortnight ago.

The 27-year-old says the troubles he faced on Saturday afternoon at Le Mans can be traced down to his incident in qualifying, as he urged the need to score points on a regular basis to boost his chances of winning a third title.

“It’s true that we have to find consistency, but it’s two weekends in a row that on Saturday that we had to face some bad luck,” he added.

“It’s bad luck that it comes from my mistakes of the morning because without this crash I was having the same bike and everything was good.

“We were not expecting a reaction like this for the sprint.”

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Marquez “angry with myself” after Le Mans MotoGP Q1 exit

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The eight-time world champion endured a difficult French GP weekend on the Gresini-run Ducati prior to Saturday’s 13-lap sprint.

Out of the Q2 places after Friday’s running, Marquez was knocked out of Q1 in qualifying and starts 13th for both races at Le Mans.

Despite this, he was able to launch his way up to fifth off the line in Saturday’s 13-lap sprint and went on to finish second having made an improvement with bike set-up.

Speaking about his qualifying, Marquez said: “Q1. I’m angry with myself because I was not convinced in Q1.

“Yesterday, we did a mistake together with the team, taking a lot of risks going in a different direction in the set-up of both bikes for the practice and we were out of that Q2.

“And then in Q1, I was not convinced.”

Marc Marquez, Gresini Racing

Marc Marquez, Gresini Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Marquez suffered a huge scare going through the fast Turns 1/2 right-hander late in Q1 when he lost the front while chasing Ducati’s Enea Bastianini – the Spaniard avoiding a big incident.

He says this was down to him feeling “uncomfortable” riding in a tow on qualifying laps on the Ducati and says this, rather than any late yellow flags for crashes, was the main reason for his Q1 exit.

“In that first corner, and I say to you in the past, behind somebody on this bike I feel more uncomfortable,” he explained.

“And is exactly what happened. I learned about it. I could say later that yellow flags [hindered me].

“But that was not the reason. The reason was my mistake.

“That moment [at Turn 2], one time I was looking at the wall. But luckily [Jack] Miller crashed before a few years ago and there was a run-off area [installed] but without that run-off area it was a dangerous moment.”

On the opening lap of the sprint, Marquez went from 13th to fifth after the first few corners and overtook Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales for fourth at Turn 11.

While acknowledging how good his launch of the line was, it was the pace afterwards as he closed down second-placed Marco Bezzecchi before the VR46 rider crashed that made him happiest.

“On the actual MotoGP, yes, because now with all the holeshot devices and all these things it’s super difficult to make the difference on the start because every rider, every manufacturer starts in a good way,” he said when asked if that was his best start ever.

“But yeah, it’s true that it was a good start – a combination of concentration, luck, risk, instinct.

“This is what the people speak more [about] but for me the most important thing was the pace after that.

“The pace after that was something that was not there all weekend, and in the sprint race I was able to ride in a constant way, in a good way, and this makes me happier even if I finished fourth or fifth.”

On the gains made with the bike, Marquez added: “It was coming back to our base and then of course understanding where the other Ducatis were, especially [Jorge] Martin and [Francesco] Bagnaia, what they were doing here in this race track.

“We go a bit on that direction and we adjusted the electronics on this base set-up and for the sprint race we did a big step on that point on the electronics.

“And this helped me a lot to be smoother.”

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Martin wins sprint from Marquez; Bagnaia retires

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Obliterating the lap record to take pole in qualifying earlier on Saturday, Martin seized the holeshot effortlessly off the line and led all 13 laps of the sprint race at Le Mans.

Celebrating his 12th career sprint victory, Martin is now 28 points clear in the standings.

He headed Gresini Racing rider and chief rival for the second factory Ducati seat in 2025 Marc Marquez, who leaped from 13th on the grid and finished second after a late crash for VR46’s Marco Bezzecchi.

Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales completed the podium, fending off a late charge from factory Ducati rider Enea Bastianini to secure third – the Italian moving up to second in the championship.

As Martin blasted off the line to take the lead into the first sequence of corners at the start, second-placed Bagnaia went backwards as his factory Ducati pawed the air when he dumped the clutch and led to him being swallowed up by the pack.

The reigning world champion found himself in 14th after the opening melee and continued to go backwards as all pace deserted him.

On lap three, Bagnaia had a big snap under braking for Turn 7 and ran into the gravel, before parking up in his Ducati garage at the end of that tour for his third DNF of the year.

After crashing his number one bike in qualifying, Bagnaia took the start on his number two Desmosedici and was reported to have told his team he had no feeling on it.

Martin came under brief threat from Bezzecchi, who’d moved up to second ahead of Aprilia duo Aleix Espargaro and Vinales, and Marquez on the first lap, as the gap came down to just under six tenths at the end of the third tour.

But this push didn’t last long as Martin responded to rebuild his buffer to eight tenths next time around, eking it up to a second come the end of lap seven.

Behind, Marquez had carved his way into fourth ahead of Vinales into Turn 11 on lap one and was promoted to third soon after when Espargaro was handed a double long lap penalty for jumping the start.

Marc Marquez, Gresini Ducati

Marc Marquez, Gresini Ducati

Photo by: Marc Fleury

Once in third, Marquez chipped away at Bezzecchi’s gap over him and was putting some pressure on when the VR46 rider crashed at Turn 9 on lap 10.

Bezzecchi’s crash gifted Martin a 2.280s lead come the chequered flag, with Marquez a comfortable second have eased away from Vinales.

In the closing stages, Vinales came under pressure from a charging Bastianini on the remaining factory team Ducati, who started 10th.

But he held on by 0.624s, with Bastianini fourth ahead of Espargaro following his penalties.

Pedro Acosta survived a massive scare on the front end at the penultimate corner late on to finish as top KTM runner in sixth on his Tech3 GasGas-branded RC16.

Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46), Jack Miller (KTM) and Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse Racing) took the final sprint points down to ninth.

Home hero Fabio Quartararo could do no more than 10th on the struggling factory Yamaha, while compatriot Johann Zarco (LCR Honda) was 13th.

Yamaha’s Alex Rins crashed out on lap seven, with Honda’s Joan Mir suffering a tumble at the same corner earlier in the race when he ran wide onto the kerbs.

MotoGP Spanish GP — Race results:

 



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Martin smashes lap record for pole in crash-strewn qualifying

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With Enea Bastianini setting a new lap record to get through Q1, the tone was set for the first sub-1m30s lap of the Le Mans circuit.

Martin did so on his second flying lap with a 1m29.919s, which would ultimately cement him pole as the closing moments of Q2 turned into a crash-fest.

The Pramac rider tumbled at Turn 4 late on, while factory Ducati counterpart Francesco Bagnaia slid off at Turn 9 while he was up on Martin’s best lap through the second sector.

There were also crashes for Aleix Espargaro and Jack Miller at the end.

Bagnaia held onto second behind Martin, while 2017 French GP winner Maverick Vinales completed the front row on the factory Aprilia.

There was drama in Q1 also, as Marc Marquez got knocked out of qualifying after getting caught out by late yellow flags having also survived a huge scare at Turn 2.

The Gresini Ducati rider will start 13th having been eliminated by Trackhouse Racing’s Miguel Oliveira.

Aprilia’s Vinales opened up the time attacks in the 15-minute Q2 session with a 1m30.685s, before Martin regained the lap record with a 1m30.141s on his first flying lap.

Ducati’s Bastianini had beaten the lap record twice in Q1 to top that session, while Martin ensured it would go for a fourth time on his second flier in Q2.

The Pramac Ducat rider produced a 1m29.919s to cement top spot.

A mistake on his third flying lap on his second tyre halted another improvement, while his next effort ended at Turn 4 with an odd crash.

Ahead of him, Bagnaia was close through sector one to Martin’s best lap and set the best second sector of the session before crashing at Turn 9.

Marc Marquez, Gresini Racing

Marc Marquez, Gresini Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

With numerous yellow flags waving around the circuit, further improvements were few and far between, with Martin holding onto his second pole of the year.

VR46 Ducati duo Fabio Di Giannantonio and last year’s French GP winner Marco Bezzecchi qualified fourth and fifth, with Espargaro sixth on the second Aprilia after his late crash.

Pedro Acosta will start seventh on the Tech3 GasGas having been forced to check out of his final flying lap after coming across a slow Fabio Quartararo at Turn 12.

The Yamaha rider appeared to have run out of fuel, but may face a stewards hearing on the incident.

Provisionally, the home hero has qualified eighth from Pramac’s Franco Morbidelli and Bastianini, who suffered a technical issue with his Ducati late on.

Jack Miller was 11th on the factory KTM after a crash, with Oliveira 12th after ending Marc Marquez’s qualifying hopes in Q1.

Marquez was lucky to avoid a huge incident at Turn 3 when he lost the front of his Ducati coming through the Turn 2 right-hander.

This ultimately hindered his Q2 charge, while late yellow flags due to crashes for Augusto Fernandez (Tech3) and Johann Zarco (LCR) added to his woes.

He will start alongside Trackhouse Racing’s Raul Fernandez and Zarco, with Alex Rins 16th on the second Yamaha from Alex Marquez (Gresini).

Joan Mir was 18th on his factory Honda head of LCR’s Takaaki Nakagami, Augusto Fernandez and Luca Marini on the second Repsol-backed RC213V.

KTM’s Brad Binder will start last as his Q1 was heavily affected by a bike issue.

Q2 results:

Q1 results:



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Quartararo at a loss to explain Le Mans MotoGP Friday pace

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For just the second time this season, Quartararo will make an appearance in the pole shootout qualifying session on Saturday after finishing Friday’s running at his home round in 10th.

While Yamaha brought a raft of changes to its bike for the Jerez test after the Spanish GP, only a few items – and not the swingarm he was hoping to run – have been brought to Le Mans.

But Quartararo – whose team-mate Alex Rins could only manage 14th — says this didn’t offer him many benefits on his run to a top 10 spot in practice on Friday.

«I don’t know,» the 2021 world champion said when asked how he managed that lap. «Pushing all we have, the window we have for the bike to be like that is really small.

«I think we made a great choice on the front tyre with the hard.

«And yeah, I was pushing absolutely to the limit. When I made the first time attack, I was already P8 I think.

«So, I had to push even more and I improved. It was on the limit, but more than being directly into Q2 is we are less than two tenths to third. So, this is positive.»

Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha Factory Racing

Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha Factory Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Asked what improvements he could feel on the bike, he added: «Nothing. Unfortunately, nothing yet because we ride with the standard bike and we have to make a step, especially on the grip. But not only on traction but especially going in.»

A lack of rear grip has been a constant issue for the Yamaha this year and Quartararo says it’s important for the team to understand why the bike’s behaviour changes so radically with different levels of adhesion.

«The grip is our main issue because we clearly see from the medium tyre this morning it was a nightmare,» he added.

«Not for the bike, but for the tyres, and as soon as we have a little bit of grip our bike feels completely different.

«So, we have to understand why with more grip the bike completely changes because in the past you used to lose a little bit of performance but not as much as now.

«So, this is at the moment our main thing to improve, the grip and the bike to turn.»

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