Jorge Martin completes the hat trick on the MotoGP weekend in Le Mans! After pole position and sprint victory, he also won the Grand Prix. Martin defeated Marc Marquez and Francesco Bagnaia in a thrilling finale. Marquez snatched second place from Bagnaia on the last lap.
The three podium finishers now also form the top trio in the overall standings. Martin leads Bagnaia by 38 points and Marquez by 40 points.
The key scene in the MotoGP race at Le Mans
Five laps before the end, Martin’s second attack on Bagnaia in the Dunlop chicane works. As a result, Bagnaia stuck to the rear wheel of his Ducati colleague for laps, but was no longer able to launch a decisive attack.
MotoGP Le Mans: The racing film
The starting lineup: 1. Martin, 2. Bagnaia, 3. Vinales, 4. Di Giannantonio, 5. Bezzecchi, 6. A. Espargaro, 7. Acosta, 8. Quartararo, 9. Morbidelli, 10. Bastianini, 11. Miller, 12. Oliveira , 13. M. Marquez, 14. R. Fernandez, 15. Zarco, 16. Rins, 17. A. Marquez, 18. Mir, 19. Nakagami, 20. A. Fernandez, 21. Marini, 22. Binder
Begin: Bagnaia gets away best and turns into the chicane ahead of pole sitter Martin. Vinales has to go into the emergency exit in third place and falls back to fifth place. Ahead of him are Aleix Espargaro and Di Giannantonio. Behind Vinales are Acosta, Bastianini, Marc Marquez and Bezzecchi.
2nd round: Acosta passes Vinales in turn 6 and is fifth.
3rd round: Marquez catches Bastianini in the Dunlop chicane and takes seventh place.
Acosta attacks Di Giannantonio in turn eight, but overdoes it and slides over the front wheel. He’s out of the race. The first failure for the MotoGP rookie.
4th round: Bezzecchi crashed! He throws his Ducati into the gravel in a duel with Bastianini in Turn 6.
7th round: Marquez sits next to Vinales on the way to the Dunlop chicane, but he holds on and maintains fifth place. Meanwhile, the leading group with Bagnaia, Martin, Aleix Espargaro and Di Giannantonio is almost a second ahead.
8th round: Di Giannantonio attacks Aleix Espargaro in turn 6, is briefly over, but has to go wide and let the Aprilia driver pass again.
10th round: Di Giannantonio has passed Aleix Espargaro and is now third. He is almost a second behind the leading duo of Bagnaia and Martin.
11th round: Aleix Espargaro is now passed through. Vinales and Marc Marquez pass him within a few turns.
12th round: Bastianini sends Aleix Espargaro into the emergency exit at the turn 9/10 chicane and takes sixth place, but cuts back a bit himself. The scene is investigated by the stewards and Bastianini is punished with a long lap penalty.
14th round: Bastianini turns into the long lap and falls from sixth to ninth place.
Marc Marquez concedes Vinales for fourth place. Vinales had gone wide in turn 8.
15th round: Joan Mir fell out of the race.
17th round: Marquez attacks Di Giannantonio in the Dunlop chicane, but he fights hard and defends third place.
Quartararo has fallen! He was in a good sixth place in his home race.
18th round: Marquez repeats the attack on Di Giannantonio and is over. Di Giannantonio has to go through the emergency exit and also loses fourth place to Vinales. Di Giannantonio is also too fast on his shortcut and has to take a long lap penalty. Marquez is now third, two seconds behind the leading duo.
20th round: Martin with the attack in the Dunlop chicane, but he can’t hold the line and Bagnaia takes the lead again. Marquez and Vinales are now getting closer in big steps.
21st round: Next attack from Martin, this time he holds the line neatly and takes the lead! Marquez has found connection with the leadership duo.
25th round: Martin makes a mistake in turn three, which means that the small gap that had opened up in the meantime is closed again. Bagnaia sits next to him on the outside lane in turn 6, but can’t really attack.
26th round: Martin, Bagnaia and Marquez enter the final lap within half a second.
27th and final round: Marquez pushes past Bagnaia into second place in turn 9.
Goal: Martin wins 0.446 seconds ahead of Marquez, Bagnaia comes third, 0.585 seconds behind. Bastianini takes P4 ahead of Vinales, Di Giannantonio and Morbidelli. Binder moves up from last place on the grid to eighth place. Aleix Espargaro has to settle for ninth place, followed by Alex Marquez, Raul Fernandez and Johann Zarco. Augusto Fernandez, Takaaki Nakagami and Alex Rins get the last points.