Catalunya MotoGP: Francesco Bagnaia picks off Jorge Martin for victory

Looking to make it back-to-back MotoGP wins in Catalunya, Aleix Espargaro launched away from pole position but like in the sprint, the Aprilia rider lost several positions.

Francesco Bagnaia took the lead ahead of Pedro Acosta who began hounding the world champion on lap two.

Jorge Martin made a very good start from the head of row three as he challenged Brad Binder for P3 at the end of the opening lap.

On lap three came the first lead change as Acosta went for it at turn ten, however, Bagnaia snapped straight back as they nearly collided.

Jack Miller went down at the same corner, crashing out of P7 which helped Marc Marquez move up from ninth to eighth.

After his failed overtake, Acosta was instead demoted to third as Martin swooped through at turn ten on lap four.

Espargaro, who was running fifth on lap five, made a mistake in sector one as Raul Fernandez came through.

On the same lap, Martin’s charge continued as he delivered a brilliant move under braking to gain the lead away from Bagnaia.

Bagnaia was then bumped down to third as Acosta made his second overtake attempt on the Ducati rider stick at turn ten.

On lap 11 Binder suffered the first big drop as he was quickly overtaken by Espargaro and Fernandez.

That wasn’t it for changes to the lead group on lap 11 as Acosta crashed at turn ten before remounting 20th place.

In the battle for fifth, Marquez began to make significant progress as he overtook both Franco Morbidelli and Binder.

Edging towards the race leader, Bagnaia was beginning to reel Martin in with nine laps remaining.

The gap, which was hovering at around half a second, was slashed to just two tenths with six laps remaining.

As soon as he got within reach Bagnaia did not hesitate as he took the lead at turn five.

In the battle for third spot, Espargaro had Marquez for company who was clearly quicker than the sprint winner.

Like Bagnaia, Marquez wasted no time in using his better speed as he gained P3 thanks to a great slipstream along the start-finish straight.

Despite late pressure from Espargaro, Marquez held on to secure another stunning podium, while Bagnaia won by nearly two seconds from Martin.