What a thrill, what suspense until the last second at Phillip Island with Johann Zarco finally winning in MotoGP! Since 2017 in the category, Zarco had a race in crescendo and in the end gave no margin to anyone to get to the front of the race on the last lap where he won. Jorge Martín looked like he was in a horror film after leading until literally the last lap where he didn’t even finish on the podium!
Everything is in place for the start of MotoGP’s main race, given the changes to the calendar announced on Friday. 18ºC at Phillip Island, last-minute tyre changes, and plenty of excitement for sure in the race.
Martín had the best start and stayed in front, but the highlight was the home rider, Jack Miller, who gained four positions in no time! On the following lap, however, the Australian began to lose positions and dropped to sixth, while Fabio Di Giannantonio made his way down… climbing to fourth after beating Francesco Bagnaia.
In just three laps Martín gained more than 1s on second, Brad Binder, but the question was: how would the #89’s soft rear tyre hold up?
Marc Márquez, meanwhile, overtook Miller and climbed to sixth position, and it wasn’t long before he was in the top five, beating Johann Zarco. The Frenchman responded shortly afterwards and retook fifth place, which worked in Bagnaia’s favour.
The fight was such that Márquez overtook again, but Zarco returned the manoeuvre. 0.487s separated the #5 from the #1. Martín led by 1.668s over Binder, who was slightly faster than the Prima Pramac Racing rider for the moment.
Meanwhile, Pramac sent a message, literally, to Martín: “Breathe”, reminiscent of what happened last week when the rider crashed while 3s ahead of second. However… Martín didn’t slow down and continued to set a frantic pace and after nine laps he was already 2.391s ahead of Binder.
Joan Mir crashed at turn 4 after battling with Luca Marini on lap 10. The Spaniard nevertheless picked up his motorbike and returned to the race, but… only for a short time. The Repsol Honda rider abandoned shortly afterwards.
That was the top ten with 13 laps completed:
The next to “taste” the asphalt was Augusto Fernández who, with 12 laps to go, ended his race after crashing.
Martín was still very strong in the lead and 3.461s ahead of Binder, with Di Giannantonio 3.625s behind the #89. Bagnaia was 1.032s behind the fourth-placed rider and Zarco remained fifth.
At any moment it was expected that DiGia would overtake Binder, 0.045s away but with the gap constantly changing. Both riders had the same tyre selection. With nine laps to go, the overtake was confirmed and DiGia, still without a place on the grid for 2024, was second!
The race was entering a decisive phase and already inside the last straight and Martín was a figurehead as he led with a gap of 3.125s over DiGia. However, out of nowhere, Martín saw the #49 gain 0.4s on him and anything could still happen.
Bagnaia’s life was complicated as he was overtaken by Zarco and dropped to fifth place.
This was the top ten: Martín, DiGia, Binder, Zarco, Bagnaia, Álex Márquez, Aleix Espargaró, Jack Miller, Marco Bezzecchi and Marc Márquez.
Binder still had something up his sleeve and moved into second place. 0.8s separated fifth from second.
With three laps to go Martín was losing considerable time and “only” 1.649s separated Binder from the lead, at a time when Zarco was moving up to third!
With two laps to go, Zarco saw the light at the end of the tunnel and climbed to second place, with Martín 0.955s behind. Bagnaia, meanwhile, was also giving it his all and was third.
On the last lap Martín had… 0.4s on Zarco and the Frenchman, with his pace… moved into the lead! And not only that! Bagnaia also passed the Spaniard and was soon in third.
Martín lost positions again and in one lap he went from first to fifth, with Brad Binder also overtaking him!
And victory! Finally Johann Zarco could win in MotoGP seven years after joining the category! Di Giannantonio finished on the podium.