Francesco Bagnaia eased to a comfortable victory in the 2024 MotoGP curtain raiser in Qatar, the Italian heading KTM’s Brad Binder.
The Italian made a decent start from fourth to move up to third on the run to the opening bend. Keen to establish himself out front from the outset, he quickly passed Binder and pole-man Jorge Martin by the time the field had exited Turn 4.
In typical clinical style, Bagnaia established a comfortable pace as he looked to keep the rubber on his Ducati fresh for the latter stages of the encounter. His cause was helped further as Binder and Martin disputed second on several occasions, allowing the reigning world champion to open up a lead of just over a second.
Binder eventually won out over Martin and pushed hard to try and narrow Bagnaia’s lead, though the South African ultimately lacked the outright grip to mount a charge.
Bagnaia eventually took the chequered flag after 21 laps, a reduction of one after Raul Fernandez forced the race to be delayed as his Aprilia stopped on the grid, to open his 2024 win account. He crossed the line 0.886s clear of Binder, who collected his second runner-up result in as many days.
While lacking the pace to match the lead duo for the bulk of the race, Martin managed to come back at Binder in the closing stages. He was unable to do anything about the KTM though, and instead backed up his win in the Saturday sprint with a solid third on Sunday. Lacking the rear grip of his rivals ahead, he ended up two seconds adrift of the lead.
Marc Marquez enjoyed a strong run in his first full-length encounter on a Ducati, the six-time premier class champion running within the top five. He fell behind a charging Pedro Acosta at one point, though later retook the spot as the rookie started to fade across the closing stanza.
He remained within range of Martin in the closing laps, though ultimately was unable to stage an attack and had to settle for fourth. Brother and Gresini Ducati team-mate Alex Marquez missed out on a top five after the sister factory Ducati entry of Enea Bastianini slid through on the penultimate lap, the Spaniard taking sixth.
Fabio Di Gianantonio got the better of a struggling Acosta late on to secure seventh for VR46, the Italian failing to replicate his win from last season at the venue, while Aleix Espargaro’s expected Sunday charge failed to materialize as he could do no better than eighth.
Acosta’s late fade saw him fall to ninth, though this was still an ultra-impressive premier class debut for the rookie as sophomore team-mate Augusto Fernandez ended up a lowly 17th. A slow start for Maverick Vinales meant he had to work his way through the pack, limiting him to tenth in the end.
Fabio Quartararo and Joan Mir enjoyed a spirited battle throughout the contest to decide the best-placed Japanese motorcycle, the former leading early on before Mir put his Honda ahead as the race inched towards its climax. Yamaha’s Quartararo eventually got ahead to secure 11th in the end, while LCR’s Johann Zarco also slipped by to take 12th ahead of Mir.
VR46’s Marco Bezzecchi’s horror weekend continued on Sunday as he struggled for speed once more, the three-time 2023 race winner at one point looking like he’d even fail to score. He passed Alex Rins and Miguel Oliveira late to grab a couple of points for 14th, while Oliviera captured a solitary point on Trackhouse Racing’s series debut.
Raul Fernandez was the only retirement after running into a mechanical problem with his spare bike, while Jack Miller came home as the last classified rider after crashing his KTM at Turn 1 on the second circulation.
