Francesco Bagnaia beats Marc Marquez in epic battle at Jerez
Francesco Bagnaia wins the Spanish MotoGP after an epic battle against Marc Marquez.
Unlike the sprint, Marc Marquez made the perfect start from pole as he led from MotoGP series leader Jorge Martin.
However, Marquez came under big pressure from Francesco Bagnaia, just moments after the reigning world champion completed a stunning double overtake on Martin and Marco Bezzecchi around the outside of turn six.
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Bagnaia took the lead before the opening lap was over, but Marquez tried to come straight back which gave Martin a sniff of the lead.
Bagnaia held strong until the end of lap two when he got his braking wrong at the final corner, which gave Martin top spot.
Further back, rookie sensation Pedro Acosta got a dreadful start as he dropped from tenth to P18.
Contact was made with Johann Zarco coming through turn five which resulted in Acosta having to sit up before losing several positions.
There was no repeat of the sprint podium for Dani Pedrosa, who retired early on following a crash.
Zarco was part of another incident, however, this time it ended as a crash as Aleix Espargaro took down the Honda rider in his own crash.
Another fall took place a few corners later but this time it was as dramatic as it could get as Martin crashed from the lead at turn six.
With a lead of over one second, Bagnaia was seemingly cruising following Martin’s error.
However, a new challenger was in second after Marquez overtook Bezzecchi at turn six with 12 laps to go.
A new fastest lap of the race was then set by Marquez as the eight-time world champion was putting the hammer down to catch Bagnaia.
And he was doing just that as another three tenths were taken out of Bagnaia’s lead with ten laps to go.
After catching Bagnaia, Marquez finally made his first move for the lead at turn nine.
Contact was then made when Bagnaia pushed Marquez wide on the exit of turn ten.
On the following lap, Marquez went for it again but Bagnaia was equal to his attempt and gained the lead back at turn ten.
That was the final attempt Marquez had as Bagnaia then set a fastest lap of the race to do just enough.
