Zarco pips Martin to win dramatic Australian MotoGP, Giannantonio secure statement podium finish

In a dramatic Australian MotoGP at Phillip Island, Johann Zarco, bound for the LCR Honda team in 2024, took the top honours with no choice left but to attack leading teammate Jorge Martin. The Spaniard started on soft rear but the tyre gamble didn’t pay off at the end as he found himself in misery on the last lap. Zarco refrained from playing the wingman for Martin and instead capitalized on a late, a very, very late opportunity to claim his first-ever MotoGP victory.

The reigning champion, Francesco Bagnaia, put up an impressive fight to claim second place, while departing Gresini rider Fabio Di Giannantonio achieved a career-best third position, completing the podium lineup amidst last-lap turbulence that saw Martin slip to fifth.
As the lights went out, Martin took an early lead, thanks to the his soft rear, to surge ahead of KTM’s Brad Binder at Turn 1. Meanwhile, Pecco, who started from P3 after having recovered from consecutive Q1 appearances, initially held his position but soon lost ground to the leading duo.

Meanwhile Di Giannantonio, starting from sixth, made steady progress, swiftly overtaking Pecco for P3. Meanwhile, the championship leader further fell down the grid as he was chased out by the trio of Marc Marquez, Zarco, and Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro.
As the race progressed, by lap 10, Martin managed to widen his lead to over two seconds from Binder, while Di Giannantonio valiantly defended his third position against Pecco. Fabio ‘Diggia’ who seemingly appears to be in the ‘I don’t have nothing to lose’ mindset, made a move on Binder and took P2 with nine laps to go.
By this time, a four-rider group vied for the second spot, with Di Giannantonio, Binder, Zarco, and Bagnaia closely contesting the position. The quartet kept on chasing Martin who had managed to slap a half a second lead at the start of the dramatic last lap.
Martin, still in lead, began losing his rear compound and Zarco, who had overtaken Binder on the penultimate lap (in Martin’s favour at that time) had no choice but to attack his teammate on Turn 4 and take the lead. Bagnaia and Giannantonio followed suit and completed the rostrum as Binder claimed fourth position after a strategic move in the final corner, with Martin settling for fifth.
VR46’s Marco Bezzecchi, KTM’s Jack Miller, Aleix Espargaro, finished sixth, seventh, and eighth ahead of Gresini’s Alex Marquez. Enea Bastianini’s impressive performance after returning from injury, resulted in him rounding off the top 10 in Australia.
Martin went from reducing the points gap to single digits on the start of the last lap to further extending it to 27 points by the end of the race. Bagnaia leads the championship having bagged 366 points so far. It remains to be seen what happens in the Sprint race tomorrow, of course if the weather conditions allows it to happen.