The key moments of Jorge Martin’s 2024 MotoGP title

Jorge Martin has been crowned the 2024 MotoGP world champion after clinching the title at the Solidarity Grand Prix.

The Pramac rider made his debut in the premier class in 2021 with the team and manufacturer - Ducati - he still rides for through to the end of the current season.

Winning his first race in that year’s Styrian GP, having suffered serious injuries in a crash at the Portuguese GP, Martin instantly became a rider to watch out for in future title battles.

He mounted his first attempt at the crown in 2023, but ultimately missed out against Francesco Bagnaia in a final round showdown.

From the off in 2024, Martin and Bagnaia have been the favourites to fight for the title again, with the consistency of the former coupled with numerous errors for the latter deciding the outcome.

Becoming the first independent team rider to win a MotoGP title, Martin is also the first rider to with the championship for a manufacturer he will be leaving at the end of the year since Valentino Rossi in 2003.

Martin will take the number one plate with him to Aprilia in 2025 to defend his title.

As the Spaniard’s celebrations begin, Crash.net details the key moments that have come to define Martin’s championship winning campaign in 2024.

Portuguese GP - 22-24 March

Results: 3rd sprint, 1st grand prix

Martin kicked off his 2024 season solidly in Qatar, scoring the first of his seven sprint wins, but could only managed third in a grand prix won by chief rival Bagnaia.

At the championship’s second round, Martin was third in the sprint, capitalising on an error for Bagnaia while he was leading, before further rubbing salt into the factory Ducati rider’s wounds in the grand prix.

With Bagnaia scoring no points after a late collision with Marc Marquez - but at that point already well out of victory contention - Martin made sure to tally up his first grand prix win of the season.

It gave Martin an 18-point lead in the standings of Brad Binder, while the gap to Bagnaia was 23 points.

French GP - 10-12 May

Results: 1st sprint, 1st grand prix

At the Americas GP, Martin strengthened his position at the top of the standings by beating Bagnaia in both races there. The 30-point advantage he’d grown was shrunk at the Spanish GP at round four, however.

While he won the sprint as Bagnaia was taken out in a collision, Martin crashed out of the lead of the grand prix. With Bagnaia winning, his championship lead was down to 17 points.

At Le Mans, however, Martin fought back emphatically. The Pramac rider won the sprint and took his second grand prix success of the campaign. Maximum points came on the backdrop of Bagnaia retiring from the sprint with a mechanical issue and being demoted to third late on by a charging Marc Marquez.

Martin took a 38-point lead in the championship at Le Mans.

German GP - 5-7 July

Results: 1st sprint, DNF grand prix

Martin’s control of the 2024 standings faltered in the rounds following the French GP through to July’s German GP.

Bagnaia won four grands prix in a row, doing the double at Mugello when Martin crashed out of the sprint, and capitalising in Germany when the Pramac rider fell out of the lead of the grand prix for the second time this season.

All of his early hard work was undone, with Bagnaia taking a 10-point lead in the championship heading into the summer break.

With Martin by now having been shunned by Ducati for a factory seat for 2025 and subsequently signing for Aprilia, it felt at this moment that the tide had truly turned against the Spaniard. Conventional thought was that Ducati wasn’t going to allow Martin any chance to take the number one plate to Aprilia, and Bagnaia’s resurgent form was helping quash this possibility.

What was significant about the Germany crash, though, was that it led to a set-up change that helped stop these crashes on brakes that had proven so costly for Martin in the first half of the campaign.

British GP - 2-4 August

Results: 2nd sprint, 2nd grand prix

When MotoGP reconvened after the summer break at the British GP, Martin locked into a consistent mode that would carry on for the remainder of the year.

He was second in both races at Silverstone, but that was with Bagnaia crashing out of the sprint and finishing third in the grand prix.

Martin emerged from Silverstone with a three-point lead in the standings.

Aragon GP - 30 August-1 September

Result - 2nd sprint, 2nd grand prix

The championship lead changed hands again to Bagnaia at the Austrian GP, as a double for the Ducati star put him five points in front. But Martin finishing second in both races (Marquez’s crash in the sprint proving a helpful bonus) ensured Bagnaia had no comfort in his lead.

At the following Aragon GP, the momentum shifted again towards Martin.

The poor grip conditions at the resurfaced Aragon track, which kept having rubber washed away and dirt deposited on the circuit by overnight rain, worked massively against Bagnaia. He struggled to ninth in the sprint and a controversial tangle with Alex Marquez in the grand prix led t his sixth DNF of the year.

Martin was no match for Marc Marquez that weekend but didn’t need to be. Second in both races against Bagnaia’s woes returned him to a championship lead of 23 points that would never change hands again.

Emilia Romagna GP - 20-22 September

Result - 2nd sprint, 2nd grand prix

A flag-to-flag San Marino GP threatened to derail Martin’s hopes, as a strategy blunder saw him finish 15th while Bagnaia was second. Martin’s win in the sprint meant he held a seven-point lead heading to the second Misano race two weeks later.

That gap was narrowed to three when Bagnaia beat him in the sprint - a track limits warning for Martin distracting him and forcing him into an error that handed the lead of the race to his rival.

While he was unhappy at being barged out of the lead on the last lap by Enea Bastianini, 20 points for second put him 23 clear of Bagnaia after the world champion crashed recovering from early tyre dramas in third.

Indonesian GP - 27-29 September

Results: 10th sprint, 1st grand prix

At no point during the Indonesian GP weekend did Bagnaia look like a rider who could challenge Martin, as he struggled for pace.

While his sprint speed was better than his grand prix pace, Bagnaia still looked set to play second-best to Martin on the Saturday at Mandalika. A crash out of the lead on the first lap for Martin handed Bagnaia a crucial win and the Spaniard now had to reckon with a lot of “ghosts”.

It was the 2023 Indonesian GP where his title charge that year began to unravel, as he crashed out of a commanding lead on the Sunday.

Unsure what caused his sprint crash and fighting off visions of 2023, Martin absorbed reasonable pressure from Pedro Acosta to score his third grand prix win of the year.

It boosted him 21 points ahead of Bagnaia, who was a distant third, in the standings. But more importantly stood as testament to the mental resilience Martin has found in 2024.

Japanese GP - 4-6 October

Result: 4th sprint, 2nd grand prix

By now, the title battle had been dubbed “a championship of mistakes” by Bagnaia. And Martin made two quite significant ones in Indonesia and Japan.

At Mandalika he crashed out of the lead of the sprint, handing the win to Bagnaia. He rebounded in the grand prix to take the victory and hold a 21-point lead in the standings going to Motegi.

A crash in qualifying in Japan left him 11th on the grid, while Bagnaia threatened to inflict serious damage to the Spaniard at the front of the pack. While Bagnaia went on to do the double at Motegi, Martin was fourth in the sprint and second in the grand prix.

His championship lead was dented, but he was still crucially 10 points ahead after arguably the biggest test of his season to that point in a weekend where it could have gone all wrong.

Thai GP - 25-27 October

Result: 2nd sprint, 2nd grand prix

Martin made it through a tricky Australian GP weekend with two second places, heading Bagnaia in both races to get his championship advantage back up to 20 points.

Another big test followed in Thailand. While he beat Bagnaia in the sprint to steal two points away from his rival and ensure he could finish runner-up in every remaining race and still be champion, the grand prix didn’t go his way.

Run in wet conditions, Martin struggled to keep his GP24 off the ground as Bagnaia saw off a threat from Marc Marquez. The Italian would go on to win, while a crash for Marquez proved fortunate for Martin as it allowed him to save his own fall at Buriram’s Turn 8.

Martin took the chequered flag in second and only saw his championship lead knocked down to 17 points heading to Malaysia.

Malaysian GP - 1-3 November

Result: 1st sprint, 2nd grand prix

His first match point in the 2024 campaign was never going to be easy, and it was highly unlikely that he would emerge from Sepang as the world champion.

But that theory was tested in the sprint, when a crash for Bagnaia - his eighth DNF of the year - allowed Martin to move 29 points clear in the standings as he won the Saturday contest.

He needed only to outscore Bagnaia by nine points on Sunday now to seal the deal. Bagnaia, however, proved he wasn’t going to go down without a fight and the pair fought hard over the lead in the first three laps of the grand prix.

Bagnaia ultimately came out on top and Martin had to settle for second. A late push saw him cut the gap to the leader and threaten a last-lap rematch. But a mistake at Turn 9 with four laps to go forced him to call off his siege.

That ensured Bagnaia only took five points out of him and his lead heading into the finale was a still comfortable 24 points.

Solidarity GP - 15-17 November

Result: 3rd sprint, 3rd grand prix

A nervous final round showdown ultimately went Martin’s way at Barcelona, though a determined sprint victory for Bagnaia meant the title battle went right to the wire.

Martin ran second from fourth on the grid at the start of the 24-lap grand prix, but was overtaken by Marc Marquez on lap two to be demoted to third.

But that was all he needed, even with Bagnaia winning the race, to be crowned 2024 world champion.