2024 Thai MotoGP: Bagnaia beats Martin in wet race, Marquez crashes
Bagnaia takes vital ninth win of 2024 in dominant fashion
Francesco Bagnaia dominated a wet 2024 MotoGP Thai Grand Prix to cut Jorge Martin’s championship lead, while Marc Marquez crashed out of victory contention.
The Buriram track was left soaked after steady rainfall on the run-up to the 26-lap grand prix, with Bagnaia capitalising on an early mistake for race leader Martin.
Once in the lead, Bagnaia had to contend with pressure from Marc Marquez, but the Gresini rider crashed on lap 14.
This gifted Bagnaia a massive lead he would not cede to the chequered flag, as he beat Martin by 2.9s for his most important win of the season.
Pedro Acosta battled brilliantly to finish third on the Tech3 GASGAS, while Fabio Di Giannantonio signed off his 2024 campaign ahead of shoulder surgery in a spirited fourth.
Marquez remounted to take the chequered flag 11th, but was demoted one spot for late contact with Honda’s Joan Mir.
Pramac rider Martin shot off the line from third on the grid to take the lead from Bagnaia and Marquez, but ran wide at Turn 3.
This put the title rivals neck and neck on the run into Turn 4, with Martin muscling it out on the outside of the corner to hold the lead.
By the start of lap three, Martin was 0.8s clear of Bagnaia, who was coming under big pressure from Marquez on his Gresini-run GP23.
Bagnaia cut this lead down to half a second at the start of lap fourth after Martin had a moment on the rear end of his GP24 coming through Turn 11 on the previous tour.
Then at Turn 3 on lap five Martin ran off track and dropped to third, with Bagnaia taking the lead.
Martin quickly dropped off the back of the leading two, with Marquez making a first attempt at overtaking Bagnaia into the last corner on lap nine.
Bagnaia held firm, and did so again on lap 13 at the same place.
On lap 14, Marquez fell going through Turn 8, while behind him Martin suffered a big scare on the front end at the same place.
Marquez’s crash released Bagnaia into a 2.5s lead that would never be challenged by Martin, with the pair finishing 1-2 at the chequered flag.
With two rounds to go, just 17 points split Martin from Bagnaia - though Martin goes to Malaysia next week with his first opportunity to win the title.
Martin’s second-place finish secures him the independent riders’ title for 2024, while mathematically only the Spaniard and Bagnaia can win the championship now.
Third went to Acosta, who recovered from several early mistakes to engage in a thrilling fight with KTM stablemate Jack Miller on the penultimate lap.
The pair ran side-by-side from Turn 3 to Turn 7, with Acosta taking the position, while VR46 Ducati rider Di Giannantonio quickly overtook Miller for fourth.
Miller completed the top five ahead of team-mate Brad Binder, while Maverick Vinales was the leading Aprilia in seventh.
Johann Zarco was eighth for LCR Honda ahead of Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro, while Alex Marquez recovered from last to 10th after crashing on the sighting lap before the race.
Luca Marini was promoted to 11th after Marc Marquez was forced to drop one place at the chequered flag for a late collision with Joan Mir. However, video review showed Marquez had given up a place when originally instructed and was given 11th back.
Enea Bastianini dropped to 10th from second in the early laps before crash. He remounted to finish 14th ahead of Honda’s Joan Mir, who was knocked wide at Turn 3 late on by Marc Marquez.
Fabio Quartararo was taken down in a collision with Pramac’s Franco Morbidelli on lap four while he was running inside the top six.
He remounted to finish a distant 16th, while Morbidelli was handed a long lap penalty - which he served on lap six before crashing on lap eight.
Marco Bezzecchi (VR46), Trackhouse duo Raul Fernandez and Lorenzo Savadori, Alex Rins (Yamaha) and Augusto Fernandez (Tech3) all crashed out.
