MotoGP: Bagnaia's Japan double-whammy, as more records tumble for Michelin
Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) won both races at the Motul Grand Prix of Japan, Round 16 of the 2024 world championship. Another strong performance by Michelin's MotoGPTM range contributed to new track, race-lap and shortest race-duration records for Motegi, a notoriously demanding and particularly varied circuit.
Bagnaia qualified second on the grid before claiming both Saturday's sprint and the grand prix itself.
The Italian got away well at the start of the weekend's showpiece and appeared in front on the first of the afternoon's 24 laps. Taking maximum advantage of the grip and consistency of his choice of hard and medium MICHELIN Power Slicks front and rear, he went on to pull out an enviable gap and managed his tires perfectly to collect his eighth victory of the campaign.
The provisional Riders' standings leader Jorge Martin (Prima Pramac Racing) fought his way back brilliantly from 11th at lights-out to claim second at the flag, posting the fastest race-lap (1m44.461s, Lap 5) in the process.
Gresini Racing MotoGP's Marc Marquez was third after starting ninth.
The conditions were challenging all weekend, with showery weather depriving the riders of track time to evaluate their MICHELIN Power Slicks at Motegi, notably the rears. That, however, didn't prevent Pedro Acosta (Red Bull GASGAS Tech3) from clocking a new lap record for the circuit (1m43.018s) en route to his first MotoGPTM pole-position.
The majority of the field chose a combination of hard and soft tires front and rear for the sprint, but the conditions were more unsettled ahead of Sunday's grand prix, with rain a real threat. In the end, practically everyone started on hard and medium MICHELIN Power Slicks front and rear, the sole exception being Takaaki Nakagami (IDEMITSU Honda LCR) who opted for the soft rear.
The pace produced a new race-lap record as early as Lap 2. It was then bettered several times until Martin established the definitive new benchmark fifth time around. Bagnaia eventually completed the distance in a time of 42m9.790s to shave 11.5 seconds off the previous shortest race-duration record for the Japanese race which had stood since 2014.
Bagnaia has reduced the gap to Martin in the championship standings to just 10 points. Enea Bastianini (Ducati Lenovo Team) is third (+79).
Next round: Qatar Airways Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix, Phillip Island (October 18-20).