Jorge Martín played practically all or nothing in Australia. And his bet ended up costing him dearly. Although he practically flew over the Phillip Island circuit to take pole and dominated practically the entire Grand Prix, finally overtaking due to the bad wind conditions expected for Sunday, he was finally overtaken by his closest pursuers in a final twist of vertigo in which his plan collapsed like a house of cards. Choosing the soft rear tire was ultimately his doom. Almost at the last breath, he was suddenly passed by both his teammate Johann Zarco, who would end up winning his first GP, and Pecco Bagnaia who was able to increase the gap in the World Championship classification a little more. Above all, after the Madrid native ended up being relegated even to fifth place, behind Fabio Di Giannantonio and Brad Binder.
The podium in Australia, with two premieres, was most atypical. Zarco rose to the top for the first time in MotoGP and Di Giannantonio, with his third place, finally knew what it is like to be on one of his steps in the highest category of motorcycling. Just when he has to fight not to be left out of the circuits next year, once the signing of Marc Marquez by Gresini has been confirmed. “It’s hard to believe it, but the first victory has finally arrived. It was about saving the rear tire as much as possible, I managed to have something more and it was a surprise to see that Jorge Martin was falling as the laps went by. I tried to overtake as much as possible and it turned out well. After so many races trying to finish first, it’s very exciting to achieve it. I don’t want to, but I think I’ll burst into tears soon,” the Frenchman confessed as soon as he finished the race. “I saw that the leaders were pushing, perhaps too much, because the rear tire made me spin very quickly. The last part of Zarco was very strong, I tried to hook on to him and, when he passed Martín, I took advantage of it to pass him too and it turned out perfect. Being on the podium is fantastic,” summarized the World Cup leader.
Nothing invited us to think about such an outcome at the start of the race. Jorge Martín had a dizzying start and had excellent driving for much of the race. His advantage, both with a chasing group that initially included Marc Márquez, who ended up being tremendously diluted in the race and finished fifteenth, and Pecco Bagnaia, whom he managed to gain an advantage of almost five seconds, was reduced in a terribly drastic way. upon reaching the last lap. The soft tire couldn’t take it anymore. And that was taken advantage of by the drivers who were then closest, the three protagonists of the final podium and Brad Binder, to finally relegate him to fifth position in a race that, almost until the end, it seemed that no one was going to be able to take it away from him. Now, he is 28 points away from a lead that he managed to climb briefly last weekend and that is still in the hands of a Bagnaia who demonstrated, once again, that he knows how to wait perfectly for his moment to arrive.
As for the rest of the Spanish drivers, Aleix Espargaró was eighth, Álex Márquez finished ninth, Maverick Viñales finished eleventh, Raúl Fernández was sixteenth and Pol Espargaró, for his part, concluded the test in eighteenth position. Joan Mir, meanwhile, was forced to abandon after initially crashing in a race with Luca Marini and trying, ultimately unsuccessfully, to return to the race.