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Written by Nina Rogerson
Jorge Martin takes another Grand Prix win to put himself just 3 points behind championship leader Francesco Bagnaia.
Image via motogp.com
The MotoGP riders lined up on the grid ready for the Japanese Grand Prix and as we were awaiting the green flag, the rain started to fall. Going into the first lap the white flag was waving and riders were allowed to swap to their wet weather bikes.
Martin was once again quickest off the line with Bagnaia getting off to a slower start, but the Ducati Duo were soon both overtaken by the Factory KTM boys of Jack Miller and Brad Binder.
However, we didn’t even get a full race lap before 16 riders were pulling into the pits to swap bikes. There were 5 riders who took the gamble and stayed out on the slicks: Michele Pirro (Ducati), Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha), Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda), Franco Morbidelli (Yamaha) and Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha).
Image via @HRC_MotoGP on Twitter
Bagnaia was the first out of the pits but was slow getting off the pit limiter, so it was Jorge Martin who led the riders on wet tyres.
The Yamahas of Quartararo and Crutchlow pulled into the pits at the end of lap 2 to swap to wet tyres after it was clear that being on slicks was not going to give them an advantage.
Martin remained in the lead of the wet tyre riders until lap 3 when he went wide and was forced back down to 9th. At this point, Pirro, Bradl and Morbidelli were still all out on slicks but were quickly being hunted down by the rest of the field.
Bradl finally pitted for a bike change on lap 3 with Pirro then pitting on lap 4. This left Morbidelli as the only rider still out on slick tyres.
On lap 5 it was Aleix Espargaro who led the race with Marc Marquez in P2 and Bagnaia in P3. Martin was quick to recover from his lap 3 blunder and took P3 from Bagnaia on lap 6 and was firmly back in the fight for the victory.
Aleix Espargaro then started to suffer from rear grip problems and fell into the hands of Martin who had his eyes on the race victory. Martin took the lead from Espargaro and started pulling away at the front.
It was on Lap 8 that Morbidelli finally came in to change bikes after riding around at the back of the field struggling on slicks.
With Martin leading out front and Bagnaia sitting comfortably in P2, we had to look further down the field to see a fight for positions. Jack Miller and Joan Mir spent a considerable amount of time fighting for 7th place before Miller locked the front of his KTM and went wide pushing himself back to 10th.
Image via motogp.com on Twitter
The rain was falling heavier now and the wet weather master, Marc Marquez, saw his opportunity. He started pushing hard and by lap 12 found himself in P3.
It looked like Marquez was catching Bagnaia too until the red flag promptly came out after Johann Zarco crashed on lap 13. The riders pulled back into the pits to wait for the restart procedure.
Once the pit lane was open again the riders filed onto the grid for the warmup lap but they didn’t even make it through the full lap before the red flag was brought out again and they called time on the race.
Image via @MotoGP on Twitter
The results were called from the lap of the red flag meaning Jorge Martin, Francesco Bagnaia and Marc Marquez took the podium places. The 25 points for Martin means that going into the next round, only 3 points separates Bagnaia and Martin in the championship.
Marco Bezzecchi narrowly missed out on another podium to take 4th, with Aleix Espargaro taking 5th after struggling with rear grip. The KTMs of Jack Miller and Augusto Fernandez took 6th and 7th.
Fabio Di Giannantonio finished in 8th after a strong weekend from the Italian. Raul Fernandez finishing in 9th after having to serve a long lap penalty for an incorrect bike swap. Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo rounded out the top 10.
Takaaki Nakagami finished his home grand prix in 11th with the other Honda of Joan Mir following him in 12th.
Yamaha test rider, Cal Crutchlow, was another incorrect bike swap offender and had to serve a long lap penalty to then finish the race in 13th. Stefan Bradl brought the LCR Honda home in 14th.
Pol Espargaro crossed the line in 15th with Michele Pirro coming home in 16th. Franco Morbidelli finished in 17th after his longer stint on slick tyres.
Miguel Oliveira finished in 18th after retiring the lap before the red flag due to vision problems caused by the heavy rain. Maverick Vinales was the last of the finishers after a tough race that put him in the gravel early on and then having to serve a long lap penalty because of incorrect bike swap.
Johann Zarco and Brad Binder were the non-finishers after Zarco’s lap 13 crash and Binder sliding out of contention on Lap 6.
The action continues in just under 2 weeks’ time for the Indonesian Grand Prix, will Jorge Martin take control of the championship or will Francesco Bagnaia maintain the lead?
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