A tight sprint race and valuable points for an equally compact general classification. Italian Francesco Bagnaia won the Japanese MotoGP Grand Prix sprint race on Saturday, closing the gap to 15 points with World Championship leader Jorge Martin who finished 4th after starting 11th on the grid. “Pecco” Bagnaia crossed the finish line with a tiny margin over Enea Bastianini, his teammate in the Ducati factory team, and Marc Marquez (Ducati-Gresini).
“It wasn’t easy. We had to sacrifice a little performance during the race to better understand how the bike worked in these conditions,” said the Turinese, double reigning world champion, who started from 2nd position on the grid. If the track was dry, the rain was not far away under a gray sky which made it difficult for the drivers to warm up their tires and improve grip.
The race was marked by the fall of the young Spanish prodigy Pedro Acosta (GasGas-Tech3), who started in pole position, four laps from the end while he was in the lead. He was overtaken at the first corner by Bagnaia but quickly regained the lead, even managing to open up a slight gap. But he crashed when approaching a corner a little too optimistically, ruining his chances of winning for the first time in his career, at 20, a race in MotoGP, the category where he is making his debut this year.
Acosta for the Grand Prix?
The French Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) and Johann Zarco (Honda-LCR) finished 14th and 18th respectively. In the championship, Martin now has 372 points and Bagnaia 357. Followed by Bastianini with 300 points and Marc Marquez with 295. After the Grand Prix on Sunday, there will be four races remaining before the end of the championship.
Bagnaia and Martin engage in a very close duel, like last year at the same time. The Spaniard, who only started 11th on the starting line after falling in qualifying, made a superb start, gaining several positions from the start. With his 4th place, he limits the damage before the Grand Prix on Sunday, the start of which will be given at 7 a.m. for 24 laps while the sprint race only had 12 while bringing back fewer points.
Acosta will once again start in the lead, with the starting grid being the same for both races. He will do everything not to repeat his mistake from Saturday. He has not yet won a race in MotoGP and that is his stated objective for his first season in the elite. He will leave the French Tech3 team next season to join the official KTM team.
