What a finish it has been to the afternoon of MotoGP at Phillip Island when Jorge Martin almost led the entire 27 lap race upfront before his soft rear tire strategy was unfortunately backfired during the last lap, which paved the way for Pramac Racing team-mate Johann Zarco to secure his first win in the top class at age 33 & also his first win in many years since the 2016 Valencian GP over in Moto2.
Gotta feel sorry for Martin who was way ahead of the field as soon as the race started, but then began to lose ground when it comes to the 2nd half run & he too instead ended up in 5th. This added some setback when it comes to his championship hopes as he sits 22 points behind leader Francesco Bagnaia after he finished 2nd for the main Ducati team.
Another great highlight from the last few laps of the race is the 4-5 way battle upfront where Zarco got around his team-mate on the inside before he blocked Bagnaia at Miller corner in that captured the race winning move en route with a few corners left towards the checked flag. He too has came from a long, long way where he wasn’t happy at KTM back in 2019 to rebuilding his premier class career within the Ducati satellite teams over the last few years & now he will move to the Honda LCR team on a two-year deal next year, which is a great move from him indeed. There will be a bit more MotoGP tomorrow at 1pm when it comes to the 13-lap sprint race that includes the Moto 2 & 3 races beforehand in the morning, as they have swapped out with the main race of this weekend’s Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix schedule due to impending weather.