Marc Marquez for MotoGP™ victory after slippery start

Marc Marquez has taken one of the greatest wins of his illustrious career in a brilliant display of racing at the Qatar Airways Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix 2024.

For lap after lap Marquez stalked Jorge Martin and for lap after lap Martin defended the lead. But when he ran wide on the way out of Miller Corner on lap 23, Martin surrendered the lead – then got it back, then Marquez sent it, at the same corner, a lap later.

Over the final three laps Marquez inched away, building a gap big enough to savour on the final lap. Eventually he won by a telling 0.997s, with Martin having no answer to his speed over the final 12km.

But Marquez’s fourth MotoGP™ win at the track almost did not happen. From the middle of the front row he made the terrible start after, almost unbelievably, throwing a visor tear-off under the rear tyre of his Ducati GP23 – and therefore, smoked the tyre off the line, losing about 10 places. But he took four of those back almost immediately, and then picked off the bikes in front to get onto Martin’s tail.

“Always something happens!” he said. “I never pull a tear-off at the start because everything was dangerous, but something was there [in front of the visor] and I take it off. I saw it and tried to take it off but it was impossible.

“I thought it was impossible to catch Martin, he was pushing all the race but I saved the tyre to have the last attack.”

“It was a difficult race,” he said. “I had some pace but the feeling was not the same as yesterday. I started to push, I knew Marc was there, and I knew he was going to try at Turn 4. I took a risk but he did it again.”

For the first half of the race the two Spaniards had Pecco Bagnaia for company, all three Ducati riders biding their time and protecting their tyres for the end of the 27-lap race. 

As the lead trio approached half-distance, Bagnaia started to lose touch with the two Spaniards, dropping to a second back, then two. By the chequered flag the current World Champion was 10s away from the winner.

“It was difficult but that is okay. We have the next tracks that will suit us better,” he said. 

“I tried everything I could to stay with Jorge and Marc but it started to sag a bit, and they did a better job.”

As if anything could make Marquez’s race any better, his 2013 lap record was finally beaten – by himself, with a lap of 1m27.765s, faster than he managed to go in qualifying. 

The rest of the top six places were also filled by Ducatis, with Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46), Enea Bastianini (Ducati Corse) and Franco Morbidelli (Pramac). The best non-Ducati was Brad Binder, seventh on the works KTM.

After a tough Saturday Jack Miller found himself further back than he would have wanted but was in the middle of a five-bike scrap for a lot of the race, eventually finishing 11th.

As a result of second place Martin has extended his championship lead over Bagnaia, 424 to 404. Marquez is on 345 points ahead of Bastianini (331) and Binder (192).

The next race in the championship will take place next weekend at the Buriram circuit in Thailand.