Race report

MotoGP Thailand GP: Martin holds off Binder, Bagnaia to win nail-biter

Pramac’s Jorge Martin won a thrilling MotoGP Thailand Grand Prix on the road from Brad Binder, but a late penalty boosted Francesco Bagnaia to second as the championship gap narrowed.

In a strategic 26-lap grand prix where tyre preservation was crucial, Martin, Binder and Bagnaia engaged in a tense dice over the final laps for victory.

Having briefly lost the lead on lap 23, Martin came back through again on Binder on the penultimate tour and held firm on the final lap to score his fourth grand prix victory of the season.

Binder had to surrender second after exceeding track limits on the final lap, demoting him a spot behind Bagnaia – gifting the factory Ducati rider an important four points.

Heading into the final three rounds, Martin now trails Bagnaia by just 13 points having already cut his lead to 18 with victory in the sprint on Saturday in Thailand.

Marco Bezzecchi remains just in touch in the championship chase, 79 points adrift, after finishing fourth on his VR46 Ducati ahead of Aleix Espargaro on the factory Aprilia.

In a carbon copy of the start in the sprint, Martin didn’t get off the line as strong from pole as second-placed Luca Marini on the VR46 Ducati.

But Martin was able to outbrake Marini into Turn 1 to hold the lead as Espargaro and Bagnaia slotted in behind.

Espargaro moved into second ahead of Marini at Turn 4 on the opening lap, while Binder took fourth from Bagnaia at Turn 9.

This forced Bagnaia to check up, dropping him behind Gresini Ducati’s Alex Marquez – who was the only rider on the contra-strategy with the rear tyre, opting for the medium over the hard.

Bagnaia took fifth back from Marquez on lap two briefly, only to be passed again as Martin held a stable three-tenth lead over Espargaro, keeping the pace slow to preserve his rubber.

Binder took third from Marini on lap three as Bagnaia came under fire from Honda’s Marc Marquez, the pair engaging in a nice duel for sixth across laps four and five.

Bagnaia would ultimately get the upper hand on Marquez on lap five, while Binder moved up to second ahead of Espargaro the tour before.

With the pace being as steady as it was, the top 18 on lap seven were covered by just five seconds.

By lap 10, Bagnaia had worked his way up to fourth ahead of Marini, who slipped behind Alex Marquez on the fifth tour.

A crash for Alex Marquez on lap 13 at Turn 10 cleared the way for Bagnaia to move up to third as the top three pulled eight tenths clear of the pack behind.

It wouldn’t be until lap 20 that the battle at the front kicked into its next phase, with Binder launching his first raid on the lead at Turns 8 and 9 on Martin.

Martin won out in this melee and did so again at Turn 3 on the next tour after Binder ran wide, which also forced Bagnaia to check up in third to avoid contact with the KTM.

Binder made a move stick on Martin on lap 23 at Turn 8, but the Pramac rider didn’t relent and retook the lead two tours later at Turn 3 after the KTM man ran wide.

Bagnaia tried a daring raid around the outside of the pair of them on the brakes into the final corner, but couldn’t pull it off, remaining third.

Martin didn’t allow Binder another chance to come through on the final lap and took the chequered flag to complete the double in Thailand.

On the final lap, Binder ran onto the green run-off area on the exit of Turn 5, which copped him a one-place penalty at the chequered flag, promoting Bagnaia to second.

With 0.253s covering the top three, it marks the fourth-closest podium in premier class history.

After a dice with his VR46 team-mate, Bezzecchi took fourth from Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro and the Yamaha of Fabio Quartararo.

Marc Marquez was seventh in the end as Marini faded to eighth, with Fabio Di Giannantonio (Gresini) and Pramac’s Johann Zarco rounding out the top 10.

Franco Morbidelli was 11th on the second Yamaha from Joan Mir on the Honda, Ducati’s Enea Bastianini, LCR’s Takaaki Nakagami and Raul Fernandez (RNF).

Technical issues forced Aprilia duo Maverick Vinales and Miguel Oliveira (RNF) to retire.

MotoGP Thailand GP - Race results:

Driver Info

Cla	Rider	#	Bike	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Retirement	Points
1	J. Martin Pramac Racing	89	Ducati	26	39'40.045		179.0		25
2	F. Bagnaia Ducati Team	1	Ducati	26	+0.253 39'40.298	0.253	179.0		20
3	B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	33	KTM	26	+0.114 39'40.159		179.0		16
4	M. Bezzecchi Team VR46	72	Ducati	26	+2.005 39'42.050	1.891	178.9		13
5	A. Espargaro Aprilia Racing Team	41	Aprilia	26	+4.303 39'44.348	2.298	178.7		11
6	F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing	20	Yamaha	26	+4.550 39'44.595	0.247	178.7		10
7	M. Marquez Repsol Honda Team	93	Honda	26	+5.362 39'45.407	0.812	178.6		9
8	L. Marini Team VR46	10	Ducati	26	+6.778 39'46.823	1.416	178.5		8
9	F. Di Giannantonio Gresini Racing	49	Ducati	26	+7.569 39'47.614	0.791	178.5		7
10	J. Zarco Pramac Racing	5	Ducati	26	+9.377 39'49.422	1.808	178.3		6
11	F. Morbidelli Yamaha Factory Racing	21	Yamaha	26	+11.168 39'51.213	1.791	178.2		5
12	J. Mir Repsol Honda Team	36	Honda	26	+11.990 39'52.035	0.822	178.1		4
13	E. Bastianini Ducati Team	23	Ducati	26	+12.323 39'52.368	0.333	178.1		3
14	T. Nakagami Team LCR	30	Honda	26	+14.537 39'54.582	2.214	178.0		2
15	R. Fernández RNF Racing	25	Aprilia	26	+15.093 39'55.138	0.556	177.9		1
16	J. Miller Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	43	KTM	26	+17.640 39'57.685	2.547	177.7
17	A. Fernandez Tech 3	37	KTM	26	+21.307 40'01.352	3.667	177.5
18	P. Espargaro Tech 3	44	KTM	26	+21.435 40'01.480	0.128	177.4
dnf	M. Viñales Aprilia Racing Team	12	Aprilia	23	+3 Laps 35'57.872	3 Laps	174.7	Mechanical
dnf	A. Marquez Gresini Racing	73	Ducati	12	+14 Laps 18'18.439	11 Laps	179.1	Accident
dnf	M. Oliveira RNF Racing	88	Aprilia	6	+20 Laps 9'17.720	6 Laps	176.3	Retirement
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