Marc Marquez masterclass down under
Marc Marquez wins the MotoGP Grand Prix of Australia in spectacular fashion, beating out Jorge Martin and Pecco Bagnaia to the podium.
The race didn’t go all his own way, with a poor start, like in the sprint, but this time because of his own tear-off falling to his rear tyre. As a result he suffered a massive loss of rear grip, and spun up the rear tyre, dropping him to ninth. However, in true Marquez fashion, he put in bold, yet precise overtakes on his competitors, and a lunge at Miller Corner on Martin with 2 and a half laps to go was enough to seal the victory.
Jorge Martin finished an impressive second, having been nearly faultless all weekend, managing to finish some 9 seconds ahead of his title rival Bagnaia. Although he didn’t win, Martin extended his margin in the championship to 20 points over Pecco, with only 3 rounds to go.
Fabio Di Giannantonio impressed again this weekend, finishing 4th and managed to overtake the factory Ducati of Bastianini in the final few laps. It’ll be his last race of the season next time out in Thailand as he’ll miss the last two rounds to undergo surgery to his left shoulder, a problem which has been plaguing him for large parts of this season.
Further down the field, Fabio Quatararo had an excellent start for Yamaha, launching his way from 18th to 10th by the end of the first lap. A tough scrap with Miller and a crash for Marco Bezzecchi meant he finished P9 for a slowly improving Yamaha team.
Home hero Jack Miller didn’t have the weekend he would’ve dreamt of. Failing to get through to Q2, a crash in the sprint and a P11 finish in the main race, compared to his teammate Binder in 7th, continues his streak of disappointing weekends and what ifs.
As for the rookie of the year, Pedro Acosta had a fast crash at Siberia on lap 11 of the sprint race on Saturday. This caused him to suffer left shoulder trauma and was declared unfit for the main race today.
Going through the rest of the field, Raul Fernandez finished 10th for the Trackhouse team, last years winner Zarco finished 12th for LCR, followed by Rins, Marini and Alex Marquez who rounded out the points.
One key noticeable aspect of this race was the difference between the GP23 and GP24 Ducati along the straights. Marquez on the GP23 was able to get great drive and traction out of the final sweeping left hander, with his initial speed much greater than that of Martin on the GP24. However, when the rear ride height device is engaged, it pushes the GP24 to an unmatchable speed as their ability to get the traction and power down is unrivalled. This meant for Marquez he had to ensure he was far enough ahead of Martin on the straights, a problem which he’s had all season long.
I think this race really showed the level that Marquez can operate at. To be able to take the fight to Martin, who is excellent at Philip Island, to then pass him and pull away over the last two laps demonstrated how comfortable he is on the Ducati. It’s exciting, and probably scary for his competitors, to think what he may be capable of the GP25 next year, and whether the Marc of 2019 will return.