End of the Repsol Honda era prompts questions about what comes next

Marc Marquez celebrated a second victory in 2024 after judging tricky conditions perfectly to win the San Marino Grand Prix at Misano.

After ending his 1043-day victory drought at Aragon, Marquez had to wait just another week to celebrate his first back-to-back wins since 2021.

It came after the Gresini rider crashed in qualifying and was left ninth on the grid, while the result means his status as a championship contender has strengthened.

It was a bad Sunday for championship leader Jorge Martin, whose brilliant sprint win was followed by a strategic blunder that has hurt his points lead dearly over an injured Francesco Bagnaia.

There was a welcome return to form for Franco Morbidelli, while Fabio Quartararo put in a strong showing for Yamaha.

Elsewhere, Aprilia endured a nightmare on home soil while Honda’s miserable season failed to improve as a legendary partnership with Repsol was announced as ending in 2024.

Here are five things we learned from the 2024 MotoGP San Marino GP.

The end of an era

Honda’s San Marino GP wasn’t anything to write home about. Neither factory team rider took part in Sunday’s race due to illness, while Johann Zarco was a despondent 12th for LCR as he came to the conclusion that the 2024 bike concept “isn’t working”.

Then shortly after this bleak showing, Repsol announced it would be ending its title partnership with the factory Honda squad at the conclusion of the 2024 campaign.

This has been something rumoured for a while now, while the writing appeared to be on the wall when HRC revealed its factory colour scheme for 2024 - with Repsol branding far less prominent than before.

It will be the end of a partnership that dates back to 1995 and has seen a lot of success, which includes multiple world titles with the likes of Mick Doohan, Valentino Rossi and Marc Marquez.

The Spanish oil giant says it will remain associated with motorsport, though it’s unclear in what capacity. But the timing of its announcement in relation to MotoGP raises questions.

For starters, this coming a year after Marquez quit Honda can’t be a coincidence.

But beyond that, with MotoGP moving towards 100% non-fossil origin fuels in 2027, it seems like the wrong time to be bowing out of grand prix racing if it has no plans to partner up with another team or manufacturer before then.

Former team-mates enjoy boost

Local knowledge is something Franco Morbidelli was able to exploit at Misano last weekend as he enjoyed one of his best weekends in a long time.

The Pramac rider took his first MotoGP victory at Misano in 2020 for Petronas SRT Yamaha and has completed a lot of laps with the VR46 Academy at the venue.

Recently, Morbidelli has started showing good speed on the Ducati and scored a first front row start last weekend for the first time since Spain 2021 when he qualified second. He converted this to first podium since that race in the sprint, fending off Bastianini for third.

Morbidelli put team-mate Martin under some early pressure in the grand pix and “didn’t hold back” when the rain came as he felt he could genuinely win the race. That didn’t pan out, as he crashed at Turn 1 at the start of lap seven. Nevertheless, it was a confidence injection that will make Morbidelli one to watch at the Emilia Romagna GP in a few weeks.

The same is true of former Yamaha team-mate Fabio Quartararo. The 2021 world champion has fond memories of Misano as the place he secured his crown three years ago.

Yamaha tested at Misano recently, though Quartararo feels this didn’t offer any advantage. Therefore, he got straight into Q2 after Friday practice, qualified 10th, finished ninth in the sprint and seventh in the grand prix on merit.

A new Yamaha chassis helped with the strong race pace, though it left a little to be desired in qualifying trim.

Seventh is by no means a standout result for a rider like Quartararo, but it showed how strong he can be on a very uncompetitive bike when the occasion rises. When team-mate Alex Rins could only manage 20th on the grid and 19th in both races, Quartararo’s form deserves even more credit.

Aprilia nightmare continues

Aprilia had one of its worst weekends of the year in Aragon as the gripless track surface played havoc with the RS-GP and stopped its riders from exploiting the bike’s strong points.

That wasn’t expected to be the case at Misano - a high-grip track that should have suited the bike.

But at no point over the Misano weekend was Aprilia competitive. Maverick Vinales gained direct entry into Q2, but could only qualify 11th and ended the grand prix 16th after a lack of grip on the medium rubber in the wet phase of the race forced him to make a bike swap.

Team-mate Aleix Espargaro did the same and eventually retired. Top Aprilia in that race was Miguel Oliveira in 11th on the Trackhouse-run RS-GP, but was 46.3s off the win.

The biggest issue with Aprilia’s form in recent races is that the Italian marque has no explanation. On two different tracks, with two different levels of grip, it was nowhere in both. And this follows a recent spell where the riders have faded across grand prix distances because the bike can’t preserve its rubber.

With another race coming at Misano, if Aprilia finds no clues to its problems at the post-race test taking place today (9 September), it’s in for a miserable Emilia Romagna GP.

Marquez the brave winds the clock back

Marquez moved to temper all expectations of a sudden wealth of wins after dominating the Aragon GP. Rightly, he pointed to the fact the track conditions were so unique all weekend in Spain that it wasn’t an accurate reflection of where he truly sits in the pecking order.

Coming to Misano, his aim was to start with the same feeling on the bike he ended the Austrian GP on. And he did just that, showing strong pace in Friday practice that hinted at another podium challenge.

A crash in Q2 that left him ninth on the grid looked to have “destroyed” his weekend. Indeed, in the sprint, he could only make his way up to fifth with a daring last-lap overtake on Tech3’s Pedro Acosta. It was a far cry from the marches through the field at Le Mans and Barcelona earlier this season that saw him reach the podium.

A difficult grand prix was in prospect as a result, but iffy conditions played into his hands and he brilliantly navigated a brief rain shower to go from five seconds back of Bagnaia in fifth to lead the Italian between laps six and eight.

From there he stage-managed the race to keep Bagnaia at bay, firing in a race fastest lap on lap 20 of 27 to break the factory Ducati rider’s resolve. That late-race pace was what impressed Marquez the most as he digested his second-successive grand prix victory.

While conditions helped his cause, it was clear from the off that he had the speed to be a frontrunner and it really looks like the pre-injury Marquez of old has finally returned.

“I feel that can play with my body, I start to play more with the bike,” he said. “Still some weak points, for example that Turn 11, 12 where Pecco is super fast; we need to understand for the next weekend - I will not be faster than him - if we can be close to him. Still, there are some points to discover but every time you have confidence you are able to play more with your body and be faster.”

Martin’s strategic blunder offers Bagnaia a reprieve

Bagnaia wasn’t fully fit for his home event following his tangle with Alex Marquez at Aragon the week before. But he still topped Friday practice, showed strong race pace and set a new lap record to qualify on pole.

He fluffed his start in the sprint, though, which allowed Martin to vault from fourth on the grid to the lead into the first corner. He would never be headed in the sprint, the wake from the Pramac Ducati playing a big part in an “angry” Bagnaia being unable to make a move.

Martin took a 26-point lead over Bagnaia to continue putting salt in the wounds of a tough Aragon weekend. Bagnaia got a better start in the grand prix, but Martin hounded him early on before the rain.

Having done so much training around Misano with the VR46 Academy, Bagnaia knows the place like the back of his hand and is very aware of when the surface is wet enough to change tyres. Both he and Ducati team-mate Enea Bastianini - another circuit regular - noted that they could “smell” it wasn’t ready.

Martin, running in second when the rain fell heaviest on lap seven, elected to box for his wet bike. Six riders in total did and all of them would have to come through pitlane again to swap back to their dry bikes.

The Pramac rider later explained that he simply took a gamble that didn’t pay off. He felt the rain was bad enough to warrant a change and the crash behind him of his team-mate Franco Morbidelli will have rattled him some.

Martin managed a point in a lapped 15th. But, in such a tight championship, doing the opposite to your title rival makes little sense. And it’s not the first time Martin has been guilty of this, with a contra strategy on tyres in Australia last year seeing him lose a race he led for much of the distance.

His Misano gaffe has given Bagnaia a reprieve as the championship lead is now down to seven points. With a second Misano race coming later this month and Bagnaia set to be fully fit, Martin may just find the task of holding onto his championship lead a bridge too far.

And with Marquez now only 53 points behind Martin, the pressure is mounting on both the Pramac rider's and Bagnaia's shoulders in the final seven rounds of the season.