Bastianini storms to sprint success as Martin extends championship advantage.
Enea Bastianini put on a scorching display in the sweltering Thailand Sprint, beating Jorge Martin by 1.3 seconds.
The race was won for “The Beast” in the first corner, and he never looked back. Martin had an excellent launch from 3rd on the grid, meaning he was in the position to dive down the inside of Bagnaia into turn 1. They both ran wide and Bastianini, as well as Marquez, sailed through on the inside with Bagnaia slotting into third, and Martin into 5th behind Pedro Acosta.
Martin quickly dispatched Acosta by lap 2, who eventually had his own woes at turn 3 on lap 4. He was pushing to keep up with the leading Ducatis, entering the corner with too much pace and the front end tucked underneath him. He was able to rejoin the race but eventually retired at the end of lap 10. This highlights a run of poor results for Pedro, with his last race finish being his podium in Indonesia, one month ago.
The Prima Pramac man continued his charge and passed Marquez into the last corner on lap 4 and promptly set the fastest lap, hunting down championship rival Bagnaia.
Martin caught Bagnaia by the end of lap 6, with Bastianini already extending his lead of 1.1 seconds, a gap which he was able to consistently maintain throughout the race. To overtake Pecco Bagnaia is near impossible, as he’s one of the latest on the brakes and is so consistent that an error is rare. However, on lap 7, he was wide into the left hander of 6, giving Martin the opportunity to force his way through on the inside of 7, where he ran onto to the green paint, triggering a track limits warning.
The gap between the pair began to grow, until lap 9, when Martin again ran onto the green paint, a move which if he did once more would mean a long lap penalty (or a 3 second time penalty if there wasn’t enough time left in the race to serve the penalty). As a result, Bagnaia closed in and mounted the pressure on the #89, but no opportunity came. On the last two laps Martin was able to grow the gap to just over a second, cementing his 2nd place finish.
The Gresini duo of the Marquez brothers finished in 4th and 5th, which left Marc (finished 4th) looking bemused after the race, puzzled by pace he had compared to practice. Morbidelli finished in 6th, ahead of the two VR46’s in 7th and 8th. This meant all 8 Ducatis finished in the top 8, an extremely impressive, yet daunting accomplishment.
Brad Binder was best of the rest in 9th ahead of Quatararo in 10th. After qualifying an impressive 6th, a poor first lap after saving a near high-side crash, meant he dropped to 11th, but was able to claw back a spot ahead of the other KTM of Jack Miller. Worryingly for Binder, KTM, and the rest of the field, he finished 13.9 seconds off the lead, meaning he was just under a second a lap slower than the winner Bastianini. In the 2023 sprint race, he finished 2nd, 0.993 seconds off the lead. That just highlights the extreme deficit every other manufacturer now has to Ducati, showing their extraordinary development trajectory.
Elsewhere, Zarco impressed again on the Honda finishing in 12th ahead of Mir who (finally) survives a race without crashing. Viñales had a race to forget, finishing 20th and 29 seconds off the lead, not what the COTA winner would’ve been dreaming of this morning.
The main news of the day is that Martin has extended his championship lead to 22 points, with a possible 99 available to score. He now finds himself in the position that he can finish each race remaining in second place (2 sprints and 3 Grand Prix) and he would still win the championship. The championship can no longer be won for Bagnaia on poor results. He’s going to need outscore Martin at every available opportunity, which should make for some exciting racing.
Top 10 results below:
