Three must-watch one-on-one scraps at MotoGP season-finale

The 2024 Solidarity Grand Prix of Barcelona will see the MotoGP title decided between Jorge Martin and Francesco Bagnaia.

The pair are split by 24 points coming into the season finale at Barcelona, with Martin holding the advantage over his Ducati title rival Bagnaia.

While this has dominated conversation on Thursday ahead of the Solidarity GP, there are other scores to settle elsewhere on the grid.

Marquez vs Bastianini

The main other battle taking place at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya this weekend is the race to secure third in the championship.

That is the tightest race, with Marc Marquez leading Enea Bastianini by one point coming into the Solidarity GP.

For Marquez, third in the standings would represent his best championship positioning since he was world champion for an eighth time in 2019. Marquez was 14th in his final year with Honda in 2023, while in 2022 he was 13th and in 2021 he was seventh.

Bastianini was third in the standings in 2022 during his only season so far in which he was a consistent title threat.

Both riders have differing views on the matter. Bastianini said on Thursday at Barcelona that it is “important” to him. The factory Ducati rider, who will be making way for Marquez in Tuesday’s post-GP test, noted: “Probably, this one would be more important [than 2022] because I am fighting with one of the biggest riders in this sport. I am fighting with Marc.”

Top three in the championship for Bastianini would also serve as a point of pride for the Italian, deemed not good enough to remain in the Ducati stable beyond this year as he heads for pastures new at KTM.

Should Bastianini win his battle for third against Marquez and Jorge Martin is world champion, it will leave Ducati with egg on its face - not that this is something on his mind, at least not publicly.

“You know, it will be strange probably for the team,” he said of this prospect when asked by Crash.net. “But in any case I don’t think a lot about it and I have to think only about myself, and without seeing what’s happening close to me. If it will be like this, sometimes it can happen.”

Marquez was unequivocal in his thoughts about the battle for third: “It’s of zero interest”.

As Marquez pointed out, he was third in 2015 and it’s a result seldom referenced when his career statistics are spoken about. But the point of 2024 and his switch to Gresini Ducati was to rediscover his love for racing again and see if he could still be competitive.

With three grand prix wins under his belt, he has more than achieved this mission objective. With little thought being given to third, Marquez will have his eyes set on going all out for a final win in Gresini colours if he can.

That, as Crash.net wrote earlier this week, will make him a big danger to the championship duo.

A statement for KTM’s future

Behind the fight for third place, the battle for fifth offers an intriguing subplot to this weekend’s Solidarity GP.

That is technically a three-way battle, with seventh-placed Maverick Vinales still in touch. But all eyes will be on KTM duo Pedro Acosta and Brad Binder, with three points splitting them.

Acosta is coming to the end of a sensational rookie campaign on the GASGAS-branded Tech3-run KTM, with the 20-year-old currently on nine podiums in total across grands prix and sprints.

It’s no surprise that KTM is promoting him to its factory squad next season, and the battle for fifth offers the prize of intra-team pride. One KTM’s golden boy, Binder has enjoyed a consistent season in 2024 on the difficult-at-times RC16.

But he is still without a podium since the opening round of the season and being beaten by future team-mate Acosta will be rubbing salt in the wounds.

Acosta expressed surprise at the fact he is still in the battle for fifth, as he felt he has put too many points “in the bin” through his own mistakes. And while “it’s not so important” to complete the top five in the standings, it will represent the best championship position for a rookie in MotoGP since Fabio Quartararo in 2019.

Binder is placing much value on fifth in the standings, but believes he is more than capable against Acosta.

“Well, I would like to say it was a top three at least, but for sure I’d prefer to finish fifth than sixth, there’s no doubt,” he said on Thursday at Barcelona.

“I believe we can do it, so let’s try to put together a good weekend, and if we can do that then the rest will sort itself out.”

The outcome of this battle won’t have much bearing on either riders’ lives. But Acosta going into his second season and first as a factory KTM rider as the marque’s leading light from the year before will certainly create an interesting dynamic.

The battle to not be last

Nobody wants to end the season as the lowest-ranked rider in the standings. But this is the fate factory Honda duo Joan Mir and Luca Marini are looking to avoid at the season finale.

Mir is seven points clear of Marini, with Augusto Fernandez (Tech3) and LCR’s Takaaki Nakgamai just four points further up the road.

In many ways, Mir and Marini battling to avoid dead last in the standings sums up Honda’s miserable 2024 campaign which the Japanese manufacturer will finish last in the constructors’ table.

Marini, chosen as Marc Marquez’s replacement, has enjoyed a stronger end to the season, with points in the last four rounds. Mir hasn’t had the same consistency, but has had better overall points hauls spread across the 19 rounds run so far.

Mir has had 15 crashes for the season so far versus four for team-mate Marini. That is something that could well come to influence where they finish in the standings at the end of the Solidarity GP.

Whatever happens, both will just be glad to see the back of 2024 and put full focus on Honda’s 2025 bike in Tuesday’s test.

For Fernandez and Nakagami, there’s nothing more than personal pride at stake as they take part in their final races as full-time riders.