2024 San Marino MotoGP, Misano – Race Results | MotoGP

* Rookie

After waiting over 1,000 days for his first Ducati win, Marc Marquez has claimed his second in a week with a surprise victory in the San Marino MotoGP.

Saying he had ‘destroyed’ his weekend after a qualifying crash left him ninth on the grid, the Gresini Ducati rider capitalised on a brief rain shower to snatch the race lead.

Marquez then kept clear of reigning champion Francesco Bagnaia and the sister factory Ducati of Enea Bastianini to the chequered flag.

“Maybe Fausto [Gresini] sprinkled some rain,” Marquez said in parc ferme, pointing to the heavens.

Meanwhile, much of Jorge Martin’s title advantage was wiped out when a pit-stop decision backfired, leaving the Sprint winner a lap down.

Bagnaia had avoided yesterday’s clutch slip to keep the lead into Turn 1, with Martin slotting into third behind team-mate Franco Morbidelli.

Martin swiftly passed Morbidelli but a tentative attempt to dive under Bagnaia on lap 2 almost ended in disaster.

Backing out just in time, Martin stayed patiently behind Bagnaia until the rain drops suddenly intensified after 7 of 27 laps.

Morbidelli was the first victim, crashing out of third, while Martin made a huge call to pit at the end of the lap – despite Bagnaia, and the rest of the frontrunners, staying out.

Bagnaia backed off, creating a long train of riders, with Marc Marquez slicing through the pack to lead.

Crucially, the rain cleared, leaving Martin 12-seconds down in 15th place, on wets.

The Spaniard realised it was a lost cause and, like others that had gambled on the rain increasing, pitted for slicks again on lap 10.

Martin re-joined a lap down, just behind the Marquez-Bagnaia victory battle and finished 15th.

Bagnaia was content to follow the Gresini rider throughout the middle stages but looked in danger of being hunted down by Bastianini.

Riding sore from last Sunday’s Aragon collision with Alex Marquez, Bagnaia dropped back from Marquez in the closing stages with Bastianini settling for a safe third.

Brad Binder, front-row starter Marco Bezzecchi and Alex Marquez completed the top six.

Jack Miller used the slick conditions to rise as high as third during the rain shower before being relegated to eighth, just behind the Yamaha of Fabio Quartararo.

KTM rookie Pedro Acosta went on the early attack but lost a wing in contact with Morbidelli and later crashed from 4th, re-joining at the back of the field.

There were no Repsol Hondas on this afternoon’s grid after Luca Marini joined team-mate Joan Mir is being sidelined by sickness.

Pol Espargaro was making his third race weekend appearance of the season for KTM, with HRC test rider Stefan Bradl also entered as a wild-card this weekend.

Misano is hosting two consecutive MotoGP rounds this season, starting with this weekend’s San Marino Grand Prix.

An Official MotoGP test takes place on Monday before a return to the Italian circuit for the ‘Emilia Romagna’ round, in place of India/Kazakhstan, on September 20-22.

Revised tyre pressure rules for 2024 mean riders must stay above a lower front minimum of 1.8 bar (instead of 1.88) for 60% (instead of 50%) of a Grand Prix distance, or 30% of a Sprint.

The penalty for failing to meet this minimum in a Grand Prix will be a 16-second post-race time penalty, or an 8-second penalty for a Sprint/short race.

However, the raindrops meant the tyre pressure system was not active for today’s race.