MotoGP: Bagnaia and Michelin revel in Thailand's mixed conditions
Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) took Sunday's wet weather in his stride to win the PT Grand Prix of Thailand and close to within 17 points of Jorge Martin (Prima Pramac Racing) in the Rider's standings after Round 18 of the 2024 MotoGPTM World Championship. The MICHELIN Power range provided a successful cocktail of grip and consistency in the weekend's mix of wet and dry conditions, and even contributed to another new track record in qualifying. Read on to find out more about what happened at Chang International Circuit.
Bagnaia overcame the wet, delicate conditions that marked the grand prix to pick up his ninth victory of the campaign and shorten the gap to provisional championship leader Martin to 17 points with only two of the calendar's 20 races remaining.
Like all the riders, pole-sitter Bagnaia chose medium-compound MICHELIN Power Rains front and rear for Sunday's showpiece when he passed Martin to take control on the fifth of the afternoon's 26 laps. Clearly comfortable in the wet conditions, the two-time champion used his tires' exceptional grip to pull out an enviable gap and ultimately claim his first win in the wet by a margin of nearly three seconds over Martin.
The Spaniard had started from third on the grid and actually led out of Turn 1 but soon found himself back in third place chasing Bagnaia and Marc Marquez. He was able to recover second place, however, when the Gresini Racing MotoGP star lost ground due to a mistake.
Pedro Acosta (3rd, Red Bull GASGAS Tech3) earned a footing on the podium place on the penultimate lap.
Once again, Michelin's MotoGPTM range showcased its potential across a wide spectrum of conditions, with two riders bettering the record for the Thai venue in hot weather during Friday's free practice. The heat remained for the next day's Qualifying run which saw pole-winner Bagnaia establish a new track record with a lap of 1m28.700s, more than half-a-second quicker than the previous benchmark. Saturday's sprint was then won by Enea Bastianini (Ducati Lenovo Team) in a time that was 10 seconds faster than for the same race last year.
Only Martin and Bagnaia can now now hope to claim the 2024 Riders' title. The Spaniard currently has a 17-point advantage, but Marc Marquez is 98 points adrift.
Next round: PETRONAS Grand Prix of Malaysia, Sepang (November 1-3).