[Porschefire]

Solidarity GP - Sprint





- The 2024 MotoGP title battle will go down to Sunday’s season finale after Francesco Bagnaia won the Barcelona Sprint. World championship leader Jorge Martin needed to outscore Bagnaia by two points to wrap up the title last afternoon but the Italian kept his hopes alive by turning pole position into victory.

- Worse was to follow for Martin when, having wrestled second from Bagnaia’s factory team-mate Enea Bastianini in the early stages, The Beast repassed the Pramac rider on the final lap. That means Martin will take a 19-point lead over Bagnaia into the final grand prix of the year. Bastianini meanwhile has retaken third in the world championship from Marc Marquez.

- Aleix Espargaro, Alex Marquez, Franco Morbidelli, Marc Marquez and Marco Bezzecchi completed the Sprint top eight.
Brad Binder was the leading KTM with Fabio Quartararo getting the better of Johann Zarco for tenth.

- Marc Marquez and Pedro Acosta clashed in the opening turns, forcing the KTM rookie to retire with extensive fairing damage and riding a 'naked' RC16 back to the pits.

[rajeevsulu]

Pecco is hanging on to the no 1 plate for as long as he can. Martin is doing the very sensible thing by staying on the bike and taking it to the finish line.

That is all he has to do.

Looking forward to the last GP of the year.

May the best man win.

Cheers

[Thalla]

It’s undeniable how consistent Martin was this year. He totally deserved to win this Championship.

[rajeevsulu]

Jorge Martin is crowned the 2024 MotoGP world champion. He rode a very intelligent race,did what he had to do, something that he had done throughout the year,stay on the podium.

32 podiums out of 40. A measure of his consistency. Pecco won the race . His title was lost because of his high number of DNF"s, eight in all.

Cheers Jorge Martin.

Some pictures grabbed off Eurosport HD.

Cheers

[Porschefire]

Solidarity GP - Race





- Pecco Bagnaia holds his end of the bargain and wins the ultimate race of 2024 and see the championship title go to his rival. On an other time, this would've been a weekend to remember as the World Champion, or should I say, former World Champion made the hat-rick of Pole-Sprint-Race, as he has done so many times this season. He was flawless in the race and took his 11th victory of the season, joining the likes of Valentino Rossi and Marc Marquez in taking more than 10 victories in a season.

- Marc Marquez, in his farewell race for Team Gresini provides them with a nice parting gift by taking the second step on the podium. Having more or less reverted to the FP1 setup, Marc made a much better start on Sunday and slotted himself behind Jorge Martin in third. Having running a Soft rear, he had much better pace than Martin and overtook the latter to claim second. For the next few laps, he was matching Bagnaia for laptimes and was in consideration to take the victory. However, with 6-7 laps to go, he relaxed the pace and finished 1.4s behind Pecco.

- Aleix Espargaro played a perfect wingman for his "little brother" and dulled with the likes of Enea Bastianini during the early part of the race and Alex Marquez for the last part, ultimately finishing fifth and end his spectacular MotoGP career.

- Alex Marquez finishes fourth after showing incredible pace throughout the weekend while Brad Binder finishes as the top KTM in sixth. More importantly, he finishes fifth in the championship, ahead of Pedro Acosta.

- Enea Bastianini comes out of Catalunya as the top loser as he finishes in seventh and loses third in the Championship title to Marc Marquez. Having made a reasonable good start to the race, he was involved in fierce battle with Aleix for fourth with both of them making numerable passes. A braking mistake cost him the fourth place and dropped him to eighth. He later criticised Aleix for deliberately slowing down the pace to aid another rider and hampering his chances of arriving in the podium.

- Franco Morbidelli, Marco Bezzecchi and Pedro Acosta complete the top 10. All three will ride for different teams in 2025.

- The talking point on Sunday was Jorge Martin taking the last step of the podium and more importantly, becoming the 2024 World Champion!
Nursing nerves throughout the weekend, Sunday was a much relaxed affair for the Spaniard as he made yet another decent start from fourth to second and conceding that second place to Marc, the only rider to pass him throughout the race. Running medium rear, he didn't have the pace to keep up with Pecco and Marc in front so he rode his race with the only intention of keeping both wheels on the tarmac. Behind him, his good friend Aleix ensured that no riders came close to challenge Martin for the podium. Riding a relaxed race then, he crossed the finish line, 10 points clear of his title rival and be crowned as the 2024 World Champion!

The World Championship standings after round twenty -















This concludes the 2024 season and the 'The 2024 MotoGP Season' updates from me. Thank you BHPians for the amazing support for this beautiful Sport, looking forward to more excitement and involvement from y'all in 2025!

I L.O.V.E MotoGP!

[mayankk]

Originally Posted by Porschefire

Riding a relaxed race

Seemingly so, but it certainly did not feel it, watching. And I am sure, it was even more nerve wracking for Martin himself.

As for the duo in front, did it feel that Marquez held back by quite a large extent? I mean, sure, there was lot at stake, and also considering that its his future teammate as well. Would he have been so docile had it been Martin in front? Surely no.