PHILLIP ISLAND: Six-times MotoGP champion Marc Marquez put on a master class to win the Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix ahead of world championship leader Jorge Martin at Phillip Island on Sunday.

Polesitter and sprint winner Martin of Prima Pramac Racing rocketed off the line while fellow Spaniard Marquez endured yet another disastrous launch, falling rapidly down the order before ruthlessly finding his way back to seal his third win of the season.

Marquez qualified second on the grid, but dropped outside the top-10 at the start when his own tear-off got stuck under his rear tyre.

The 31-year-old, third in the championship standings, has now won the Australian MotoGP four times.

“I thought at one time it was impossible to catch Martin, but in lap five, six, I start to get the rhythm,” said Marquez, who also won in Australia in 2015, 2017 and 2019. “It’s true that Martin pushed all the race, but I was saving the tyre for the last attack.”

While Martin led most of the 27-lap race, he and Marquez swapped places in the final moments before Marquez came out on top.

Martin’s second-place finish extended his lead over twice MotoGP champion Fran­cesco Bagnaia at the top of the world championship by 20 points.

Having qualified fifth, Bagnaia came third to complete an all-Ducati podium. With three races left in the campaign, Bagnaia, who struggled to match Marquez and Martin’s pace all weekend, will set his sights on next week’s Thailand Grand Prix.

“It was a difficult race for sure,” Martin said. “I had a strong pace but the feeling wasn’t the same as yesterday, the wind was really strong so I started to lose the front...”

While the championship is effectively a two-horse race, six-time world champion Marquez’s victory kept him in the picture. But at 79 points behind, he only has a slender chance to spoil the party.

Italian duo Fabio Di Gianna­ntonio and Enea Bastianini were the other two riders in the top-five in Australia.

Published in Dawn, October 21st, 2024