'On the limit' Bastianini leaves Martin fuming with last-lap pass in ...
Enea Bastianini won a dramatic Emilia-Romagna Motorcycle Grand Prix for Ducati, the Italian rider making a forceful last-lap pass of MotoGP world championship leader Jorge Martin to take his second victory of the season and Ducati’s 100th premier-class win at Misano on Sunday.
Martin extended his world championship lead to 24 points after reigning world champion Francesco Bagnaia crashed from third place on lap 21 of 27, but was left fuming after Bastianini’s last-lap ambush at Turn 4.
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Spaniard Martin, who passed Bagnaia for the lead on lap four, led Bastianini for the final 22 laps before the Italian drew within one-tenth of a second at the start of the last lap, and then scythed down the inside of Martin with 12 corners to go to take the lead, running Martin to the outside of the track and careering away to win by 5.002 seconds.
A furious Martin gesticulated with Bastianini on the slow-down lap back to the pits, with Bastianini conceding the move was “on the limit”.
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“The manoeuvre maybe was a bit too much, because he pushed me out of the track so I couldn’t fight back,” Martin said.
“Maybe afterwards I did some gestures because I was a bit hot. I think I was the stronger and I think I deserved the victory.”
Bastianini, who won the British Grand Prix earlier this season, did teammate Bagnaia a favour by taking five points off Martin with his race-winning pass.
“Jorge was perfect for all the race and it was too difficult to try to overtake him,” Bastianini said after his first win at Misano extended his perfect record of podiums at his home circuit to five from five attempts.
“I tried with three laps to go, but he closed the line from the exit from turn number six. After in the last lap I see a bit of space inside turn number four, I entered a bit on the limit but I closed the line.”
Ducati wrapped up the constructors’ championship for the fifth straight season with a podium lockout, Marc Marquez finishing third and 7.848secs from victory after winning the previous two Grands Prix at Aragon and San Marino.
Ducati has won 22 of the past 23 Grands Prix dating back to the San Marino Grand Prix in September 2023, their only defeat in that span coming when Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales won the Grand Prix of the Americas in round three this season.
Martin hasn’t won a Grand Prix since France in May, but second place in both the Emilia-Romagna sprint and Grand Prix proper gives him a healthy world championship lead over Bagnaia with six rounds remaining this season.
Jack Miller fell outside of the points on the final lap to finish 16th for KTM, the Australian storming through from 19th on the grid to 10th inside the opening two laps before fading badly in the latter stages.
Miller, who signed a contract to continue his MotoGP career with Yamaha for 2025 ahead of the Misano weekend, was 15th in Saturday’s sprint race to go scoreless for a race weekend for the fourth time this season.
MotoGP is back in action at the Mandalika circuit in Lombok for the Indonesian Grand Prix next weekend, with the Japanese Grand Prix at Motegi immediately following as the season wraps up with six races in an eight-week span.
