Marc Marquez took the lead in a brief downpour of rain and managed to hold off
Francesco Bagnaia to win the MotoGP San Marino Grand Prix. Jorge Martin, on
the other hand, made a premature bike swap and ended up in 15th place. Spots
of rain fell on the starting grid, and after seven circuits of the Misano race, gloomy
and humid weather brought in significant rain. As a result, six riders, including
world championship leader Martin, who had been racing second on the Pramac
Ducati, pitted to switch motorcycles.
However, Marquez of Gresini Ducati stayed on course, followed, and overtook
Bagnaia before shattering the Italian's challenge with the fastest lap of the race in
the dying moments to win the race for the second time in a row. Since there was
never a chance of significant rain, the dry line held, forcing Martin to switch back
to his original race bike, which had slick tires.
Martin’s championship lead is now down to seven points after Marquez produced
back-to-back wins in the last two Grand Prix. Six-time champion Marquez won the
race again last weekend in Aragon, Spain, snapping a three-year losing streak.
Martin only gained one point in Misano, which allowed Bagnaia, his nearest rival
for the title, to finish second and reduce his lead in points to just one. Marquez
was an underdog in Misano, starting ninth on the grid, but he performed well in
the rain and cut the difference between him and Martin to 53 points.
Ducati’s Enea Bastianini, who had a decent gap to KTM’s Brad Binder, managed to
grab third place. Marco Bezzecchi, a local rider and VR46 competitor, made up for
his mistake in the Saturday sprint by finishing in fifth place. Alex Marquez of
Gresini went as high as fourth, but traction issues caused him to fade late in the
race, finishing sixth, barely ahead of Fabio Quartararo of Yamaha in seventh and
Jack Miller of KTM in eighth.
Fabio Di Giannantonio of VR46 overcame weakness and soreness in his right
shoulder to finish ninth, while Pol Espargaro, the wildcard test rider for KTM,
came in tenth. Early in the race, the circuit was drenched by light rain, creating
challenging conditions. When the weather cleared, Spain's Martin saw his risk to
switch bikes pay off, finishing in fifteenth place.
With 20 laps to go, the 26-year-old had pitted to switch bikes, mistakenly
believing that more rain was on the way. Due to the Emilia Romagna GP being
held on the same course as a replacement for the canceled race in Kazakhstan,
the title race will return to Misano in late September.

For me, the most important was the speed after the rain. This one is for the team
Gresini, said Marquez after registering his 61st MotoGP win. Then, when I was
leading, I said, Now I will try to find the same pace as the practice. The emotions
were super high when we crossed the line; I was super happy, the Spanish racer
added.