Race report

MotoGP Thailand GP: Bagnaia claws back ground with commanding wet-weather win

Bagnaia took an important victory over Martin in a wet race at Buriram, while Marquez crashed from second place

Francesco Bagnaia has reduced Jorge Martin’s lead in the 2024 MotoGP World Championship standings after mastering wet conditions to win the Thailand Grand Prix.

The Italian capitalised on an error by Pramac rider Martin in the early stages to take the lead and assume control, before going on to take the flag almost three seconds clear of his title rival.

It allows Bagnaia to recover ground conceded to Martin in Saturday’s sprint race with the margin between the Ducati pair reduced to 17 points with two rounds of the season remaining.

As flurries of rain threatened to throw a curveball into what is already a finely poised 2024 MotoGP title battle, Martin held the advantage early on after grabbing the lead at turn one off the line from polesitter Bagnaia.

Going on to pull a second clear of the Italian, a mistake by Martin coming into the hairpin on lap five would allow both Bagnaia and Marc Marquez to slip past.

With further leery moments in the tricky conditions stymying Martin’s attempts at recovering lost ground on his Ducati counterparts ahead, Bagnaia and Marquez moved clear in their battle for the lead.

However, when Marquez’s challenge ended on lap 14 with an off at turn nine, factory Ducati rider Bagnaia was released into a comfortable advantage he’d protect to the chequered flag for his ninth victory of the 2024 MotoGP season.

In second, Martin benefitted from Marquez’s exit to limit the damage to his championship advantage with just two rounds and four races remaining,

Behind Martin, countryman Tech3 GasGas's Pedro Acosta came on strong in the closing stages following earlier off-track moments to recover to a fifth podium of the season in third, while VR46's Fabio di Giannantonio brought his 2024 MotoGP campaign to a close in fourth ahead of the surgery that will sideline him from the remaining two events.

Jack Miller ran as high as third as he revelled in the slippery conditions before slipping back to fifth at the flag, ahead of factory KTM team-mate Brad Binder in sixth.

Maverick Vinales flew the flag for Aprilia in seventh place, ahead of top Honda rider Johann Zarco in eighth and Aleix Espargaro on the second of the factory Aprilias in ninth.

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Despite falling on the sighting lap in the worst of the weather conditions, Alex Marquez made it back to complete the top ten, leading brother and team-mate Marc in 11th after the six-time MotoGP World Champion remounted for a points’ finish.

Marquez was given a one-place penalty for "irresponsible riding" while battling with former team-mate Joan Mir, provisionally leaving him 12th, but video evidence later showed he had dropped a place on track in the closing stages of the race.

Like Marquez, factory Ducati rider Enea Bastianini was also able to rejoin the race after crashing, finishing 14th behind Honda's Luca Marini and LCR's Takaaki Nakagami. The final point went to another Honda rider Mir.

Elsewhere, Marco Bezzecchi was another to crash out, the Italian coming down early on for his third DNF of the year, while both Fabio Quartararo and Alex Rins fell to leave Yamaha pointless.

MotoGP Thailand GP - Race results:

1 - 2
Cla	Rider	#	Bike	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Retirement	Points
1	F. Bagnaia Ducati Team	1	Ducati	26	43'38.108		162.8		25
2	J. Martin Pramac Racing	89	Ducati	26	+2.905 43'41.013	2.905	162.6		20
3	P. Acosta Tech 3	31	KTM	26	+3.800 43'41.908	0.895	162.5		16
4	F. Di Giannantonio Team VR46	49	Ducati	26	+4.636 43'42.744	0.836	162.5		13
5	J. Miller Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	43	KTM	26	+5.532 43'43.640	0.896	162.4		11
6	B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	33	KTM	26	+5.898 43'44.006	0.366	162.4		10
7	M. Viñales Aprilia Racing Team	12	Aprilia	26	+8.498 43'46.606	2.600	162.2		9
8	J. Zarco Team LCR	5	Honda	26	+17.672 43'55.780	9.174	161.7		8
9	A. Espargaro Aprilia Racing Team	41	Aprilia	26	+18.588 43'56.696	0.916	161.6		7
10	A. Marquez Gresini Racing	73	Ducati	26	+21.163 43'59.271	2.575	161.5		6
11	L. Marini Repsol Honda Team	10	Honda	26	+22.859 44'00.967	1.696	161.4		5
12	M. Marquez Gresini Racing	93	Ducati	26	+22.251 44'00.359		161.4		4
13	T. Nakagami Team LCR	30	Honda	26	+24.531 44'02.639	2.280	161.2		3
14	E. Bastianini Ducati Team	23	Ducati	26	+27.090 44'05.198	2.559	161.1		2
15	J. Mir Repsol Honda Team	36	Honda	26	+30.870 44'08.978	3.780	160.9		1
16	F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing	20	Yamaha	26	+50.021 44'28.129	19.151	159.7
dnf	A. Fernandez Tech 3	37	KTM	23	+3 Laps 38'55.081	3 Laps	161.4	Accident
dnf	A. Rins Yamaha Factory Racing	42	Yamaha	22	+4 Laps 37'15.850	1 Lap	161.3	Accident
dnf	L. Savadori Trackhouse Racing Team	32	Aprilia	16	+10 Laps 32'10.934	6 Laps	135.8	Retirement
dnf	F. Morbidelli Pramac Racing	21	Ducati	7	+19 Laps 11'53.630	9 Laps	160.8	Accident
dnf	R. Fernández Trackhouse Racing Team	25	Aprilia	6	+20 Laps 10'18.430	1 Lap	159.0	Accident
dnf	M. Bezzecchi Team VR46	72	Ducati	3	+23 Laps 5'11.617	3 Laps	157.8	Accident
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