Jorge Martin is the first winner at the Indian GP! Martinator returned to winning ways and didn’t want to break his winning rhythm from the last GP, in a race that was marked by a crash in the first corner with five riders. A note to Marc Marquez who returned to the podium and Marco Bezzecchi who was involved in the crash, with the latter returning to the race and finishing in the top five.
The race got off to a dramatic start for the Mooney VR46 Racing Team duo, Marco Bezzecchi and Luca Marini, but not only them: also the Tech3 duo – Pol Espargaro and Augusto Fernandez, as well as Stefan Bradl after crashing in the first corner of the race. Among the riders who crashed, Bezzecchi and A. Fernandez returned to the race, but Marini, Espargaro and Bradl ended their participation.
It was Martin who was leading the race with two laps complete, with Francesco Bagnaia in second and Marc Marquez in third. Joan Mir and Brad Binder were fourth and fifth respectively. Miguel Oliveira, who had gained a position when the yellow flag was shown, was ordered to give up that position.
Moments later Mir went down and he too was out of the race.
With the race quickly reaching the halfway point, Martin was leading with a 1.773s advantage over Bagnaia. Marquez held on to third place and was 2.7s off the lead, with Binder behind him: 0.652s divided them.
Shortly afterwards, Johann Zarco crashed and Bezzecchi, after crashing, was now seventh.
With five laps to go this was the top ten:
All eyes were on the fight for sixth place, with Jack Miller seeing Bezzecchi getting closer and closer…. and this was confirmed shortly afterwards. With three laps to go, Bezzecchi was already sixth and 0.800s ahead of the australian. Fabio Quartararo was fifth and 1.115s ahead of the #72.
Also not finishing today’s race was Aleix Espargaro, who joined the group of riders that had crashed.
Back at the front of the race, only a disaster would take away Martin’s victory, as he was now 2.520s ahead of Bagnaia. Marquez was third but had Binder by 0.204s.
With two laps to go, Binder made a small mistake that allowed Márquez to make up some ground on the south african, with the gap now aroundfour tenths. Bezzecchi, meanwhile, was 0.229s behind Quartararo.
And on the second sector of the last lap, there was confirmation: Bezzecchi had climbed to fifth place.
Just over a minute later, the race was over, with Martín taking the win.