Bikesportnz

Italy’s defending MotoGP world champion Francesco Bagnaia has snatched the lead of this year’s series after winning round nine in Germany at the weekend.

Bagnaia led the Ducati Lenovo Team to a thrilling win at Sachsenring, while his team-mate and countryman Enea Bastianini scored fourth overall.

With that, the man they call “Pecco’ became the winningest rider in Ducati’s MotoGP history while returning to the top of the championship standings.

Bagnaia was third entering turn one and managed to make his way to first position in the following two laps courtesy of two, identical overtaking manoeuvres first on Miguel Oliveira (Trackhouse Racing Aprilia) and then on championship leader Jorge Martín (Prima Pramac Racing Ducati) at the last corner.

During lap six, Pecco was overtaken by Martín and then, moments later, by Franco Morbidelli (Prima Pramac Racing Ducati).

The reigning world champion then lost a little bit of ground but then managed – at the halfway point of the race – to make it back to second position.

From then on, a close-quarter battle began between Bagnaia and Martin as the two kept logging very similar lap-times, with the gap being consistently around 0.7secs.

Bagnaia did not give up as he was determined to bridge the gap to his rival while applying pressure on the then-leader.

The turn of events took place with two laps left, when Martín crashed out of turn one, leaving clear track ahead to Bagnaia who stormed to his sixth Sunday win of the 2024, in what was the 200th Grand Prix of his career.

Spain’s multi-time former champion Marc Márquez (Gresini Racing Ducati) finished runner-up, with his team-mate and brother Alex Marquez claiming third.

With the ninth event of 20 in the 2024 MotoGP season now wrapped up, Bagnaia sits atop the championship standings with a 10-point lead over Martín.

The Ducati Lenovo Team leads the teams’ standings with 377 points, with Ducati on top of the manufacturers’ one (on 315 points).

The racers will all be back in action on August 2 at the Monster Energy British Grand Prix at Silverstone.

“We were both on thin ice in the last laps, as the front kept tucking and the rear sliding, we had no traction left and we were still lapping in the 21.0/21.1s, so it was really tough,” said Bagnaia afterwards.

“The lap before Jorge’s (Martín) crash I also lost the front, but I managed to save the day by running a bit wider. It was clear that the first to give up would have lost and truthfully, I believe it could have happened to any of us.

“We didn’t have the easiest start to the season, but we did an incredible job and even here, where we weren’t the strongest, we still managed to put ourselves in the condition to fight for the win.

“Today’s race craft was very important, as it had been in Barcelona: I saw that both Jorge and Franco (Morbidelli) were pushing a bit too much, but still it was a tough race and to come out victorious from it is simply fantastic.”

Photo courtesy Ducati

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Leading MotoGP World Championship standings after round 9: