Marc Márquez plays the spoilsport in the Martín/Bagnaia duel!

Marc Márquez (Gresini Ducati) won a thrilling Australian Grand Prix by crossing the finish line ahead of his compatriot Jorge Martín (Pramac Ducati).

If the name of Márquez seems usual at the controls of a Grand Prix, and at Phillip Island in particular (the Spaniard has won 5 times there), the race was anything but easy for the man whose start from P2 on the grid was proved disastrous and saw him fall to the depths of the rankings.

Skating until his soft rear tire burned on the grid, Márquez saw the entire peloton pass him before the first corner, from which he set about immediately making up handfuls of positions with remarkable tenacity . To the point of already finding himself in the first third of the hierarchy at the end of this crazy first lap, while Martín, installed in control, seemed destined to have to fight directly against his rival for the title, the Italian Francesco Bagnaia ( Ducati factory).

Quickly, the trio of strong men in the championship found themselves fighting for tenths of a second in control of the race, on another planet than the rest of the field. At mid-race, it was Bagnaia who gave in to Márquez’s attack, leaving the two Spaniards to explain themselves at the controls of the Grand Prix while he gradually stalled and even found himself behind by several seconds.

At the end of the race, and after several observation laps in Martín’s rear wheel, Márquez made a second attack which was decisive for the outcome of the Grand Prix.

The Spaniard keeps his mathematical chances for the championship alive, while 111 points remain to be distributed over the last three rounds of the season, in which there is still a Sprint race (with a maximum of 12 points to be scored) and a Grand Prix (with 25 points at stake). He is in fact still 79 points behind Martín, who still remains the one who achieved a great operation this weekend in Australia: after his victory in the Sprint on Saturday, the one who arrived at the start of the weekend with 10 points The advance on Bagnaia leaves Down Under now with a mattress of 20 units.

On the French side, Johann Zarco can look forward to a fine twelfth place. The LCR Honda driver is regaining color in this last part of the season with an evolved package with which performances become more exciting. Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha factory) also had a good race, finishing ninth, 18 seconds behind the winner.

The next meeting of this exciting 2024 MotoGP championship takes place next week, in Thailand, on the Buriram circuit.