2024 Australian MotoGP, Phillip Island - Race Results

Marc Marquez has taken his third Ducati MotoGP win after a showdown with title leader Jorge Martin in the 2024 Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island.

But pole qualifier and Sprint winner Martin still boosted his world championship advantage after Francesco Bagnaia faded from the victory battle.

Marquez hounded Martin during the second half of the grand prix, Pramac appearing to warn Martin to expect an attack at Turn 4 via a dashboard message.

But his efforts to defend into the hairpin saw Martin drift wide on the exit with 4 laps to go, putting Marquez into the lead. 

Martin fought back on the home straight, but the Gresini star responded with a race-winning lunge, again at Turn 4, pushing them both out to the kerb.

Caught out at Turn 1 of the Sprint, Marquez suffered massive wheelspin at the start of the grand prix – caused by running over his own tear off!

Dropping to 13th, the Gresini rider carved quickly forward to take third behind Martin and Bagnaia by lap 6. Marquez was soon locked onto Bagnaia’s rear wheel as the pair edged towards Martin.

When Martin ran wide at Turn 1 just before the midway stage, Bagnaia pounced for the lead at Stoner corner (Turn 3). But the Pramac rider lunged inside at the following Miller hairpin, with Marquez also squeezing past Bagnaia for second.

While Martin and Marquez then went toe-to-toe in terms of lap times, Bagnaia lost touch, albeit in the knowledge that he had a huge lead over fourth.

Fabio di Giannantonio won a five-rider scrap for fourth place, ahead of Enea Bastianini. Franco Morbidelli completed an all-Ducati top six ahead of KTM's Brad Binder and Aprilia's Maverick Vinales.

Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo was the top rider on a Japanese bike in ninth with LCR Honda’s Johann Zarco 11th.

After analysing the tyre wear for the soft rear on the new Phillip Island asphalt in the Sprint, Michelin gave the green light for it to be used in the grand prix.

All riders duly chose the soft rear (combined with the hard front) but some ‘management’ was required for the 27-lap distance.

Fourth on the grid Marco Bezzecchi and eighth place starter Alex Marquez served a long lap penalty during the race, Bezzecchi for colliding with Maverick Vinales in the Saturday Sprint and Marquez for hitting Joan Mir at Motegi.

Bezzecchi crashed shortly after serving his penalty.

Takaaki Nakagami had a three-place grid penalty, leaving him last on the grid, for failing to immediately pull off track when informed of a technical issue in practice.

Rookie star Pedro Acosta was ruled out of the grand prix due to pain from his left shoulder caused by a highside in the Sprint race.

Miguel Oliveira continued to be sidelined by fractures to his right wrist in Mandalika and was replaced at Trackhouse by Aprilia test rider Lorenzo Savadori.

Revised tyre pressure rules for 2024 mean riders must stay above a lower front minimum of 1.8 bar (instead of 1.88) for 60% (instead of 50%) of a Grand Prix distance, or 30% of a Sprint.

The punishment for failing to meet the minimum in a Grand Prix is a 16-second post-race time penalty, or an 8-second penalty for a Sprint/short race.

The Thai MotoGP at Buriram starts on Friday.