MotoGP Emilia Romagna GP: Bastianini takes controversial win; Bagnaia crashes

Enea Bastianini barged past Jorge Martin on the final lap to take a controversial win in the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, while Francesco Bagnaia crashed out.

Pramac rival Martin had been successfully absorbing pressure from the factory Ducati of Bastianini until the Italian sent his bike up the inside into Turn 4 with the chequered flag in sight.

Martin was forced off the track and raised his hand up in frustration, while Bastianini continued on to take his second victory of the 2024 MotoGP season.

Second place, however, was still a significant result for Martin in his bid for the riders' title, after his chief rival Bagnaia made a grave error with six laps to run and retired from the race.

At the start of the 27-lap contest, Martin got the holeshot from Turn 2 but ran too wide into Turn 1, allowing Bagnaia to immediately swing back into the lead.

The Pramac rider made another attempt at passing the two-time champion on the third lap, but again failed to get the bike stopped on time, maintaining the status quo.

It was finally on lap 4 when he could find a way past the two-time champion, outbraking his rival at Turn 8 to snatch the position.

Once in the lead, Martin found it easy to pull away from the factory Ducati rider, who slipped behind his team-mate Enea Bastianini at Turn 10 on the following lap.

However, despite Bagnaia apparently struggling for pace, Martin's win was far from guaranteed, with Bastianini closing right on his tail by lap 8.

Martin was able to build a small buffer in the middle of the race, but Bastianini came back at him in the closing stages of the race, as Bagnaia continued to slip back behind the leading duo.

On lap 23 Martin ran deep into Turn 8 and brought Bastianini into play, but managed to do enough to stay at the front.

Martin started the final lap in the lead but going into the hard braking zone of Turn 4, Bastianini made an aggressive pass on him into the Turn 4 right-hander - sending him well outside the track and onto the Tarmac run-off.

Martin subsequently took the chequered flag five seconds behind Bastianini, who celebrated Ducati's 100th grand victory in the premier class.

Bagnaia had looked set to finish third having upped his pace to set the first 1m30s lap of the race, but the two-time champion lost the front of his bike into Turn 8 on lap 21, suffering his third DNF of the year.

Gresini's Marc Marquez picked up the final spot on the podium after the late error from Bagnaia, having started the race from seventh on the grid after a crash in qualifying.

Fourth place went to VR46's Marco Bezzecchi, while Franco Morbidelli completed the top five for Pramac.

Aprilia duo Maverick Vinales and Aleix Espargaro climbed from the lower region of the top 10 to finish sixth and eighth respectively, separated by the sole remaining Yamaha of Fabio Quartararo.

Quartararo was on course for his best finish of the year in fifth as the race drew to a close but was passed by both Morbidelli and Vinales, eventually ending up seventh.

The top 10 was completed by Gresini's Alex Marquez and Trackhouse rider Miguel Oliveira.

Three Honda riders finished inside the points, as factory duo Joan Mir and Luca Marini took 11th and 12th respectively and LCR rider Johann Zarco crossed the line in 15th.

A crash for Brad Binder on lap 2 and a similar mistake for Pedro Acosta on lap 9 meant KTM returned empty-handed from Misano. The Austrian marque's best representative was Jack Miller in 16th place.

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team crash

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

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Cla	Rider	#	Bike	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Retirement	Points
1	E. Bastianini Ducati Team	23	Ducati	27	41'14.653		165.9		25
2	J. Martin Pramac Racing	89	Ducati	27	+5.002 41'19.655	5.002	165.6		20
3	M. Marquez Gresini Racing	93	Ducati	27	+7.848 41'22.501	2.846	165.4		16
4	M. Bezzecchi Team VR46	72	Ducati	27	+9.200 41'23.853	1.352	165.3		13
5	F. Morbidelli Pramac Racing	21	Ducati	27	+13.601 41'28.254	4.401	165.0		11
6	M. Viñales Aprilia Racing Team	12	Aprilia	27	+15.484 41'30.137	1.883	164.9		10
7	F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing	20	Yamaha	27	+20.922 41'35.575	5.438	164.5		9
8	A. Espargaro Aprilia Racing Team	41	Aprilia	27	+22.795 41'37.448	1.873	164.4		8
9	A. Marquez Gresini Racing	73	Ducati	27	+27.704 41'42.357	4.909	164.1		7
10	M. Oliveira Trackhouse Racing Team	88	Aprilia	27	+31.891 41'46.544	4.187	163.8		6
11	J. Mir Repsol Honda Team	36	Honda	27	+33.062 41'47.715	1.171	163.8		5
12	L. Marini Repsol Honda Team	10	Honda	27	+35.411 41'50.064	2.349	163.6		4
13	R. Fernández Trackhouse Racing Team	25	Aprilia	27	+36.335 41'50.988	0.924	163.5		3
14	F. Di Giannantonio Team VR46	49	Ducati	27	+37.395 41'52.048	1.060	163.5		2
15	J. Zarco Team LCR	5	Honda	27	+38.909 41'53.562	1.514	163.4		1
16	J. Miller Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	43	KTM	27	+40.454 41'55.107	1.545	163.3
17	T. Nakagami Team LCR	30	Honda	27	+46.394 42'01.047	5.940	162.9
18	A. Fernandez Tech 3	37	KTM	27	+47.755 42'02.408	1.361	162.8
19	B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	33	KTM	27	+1'25.918 42'40.571	38.163	160.4
dnf	F. Bagnaia Ducati Team	1	Ducati	20	+7 Laps 30'34.713	7 Laps	165.8	Accident
dnf	P. Acosta Tech 3	31	KTM	8	+19 Laps 12'19.680	12 Laps	164.5	Accident
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