Francesco Bagnaia wins Spanish Grand Prix at Jerez for Ducati

Francesco Bagnaia returned to the top of the 2023 MotoGP World Championship with a stunning victory at the Spanish GP on Sunday.
By Maurice Montgomery
Published 30th Apr 2023, 20:18 BST
Updated 30th Apr 2023, 20:18 BST
Francesco Bagnaia and Brad Binder battle for the win at the Spanish MotoGPFrancesco Bagnaia and Brad Binder battle for the win at the Spanish MotoGP
Francesco Bagnaia and Brad Binder battle for the win at the Spanish MotoGP

In the restarted 24-lap race, after a first lap incident in the original start involving Fabio Quartararo and Miguel Oliveira, the Italian Lenovo Ducati rider overcame a mid-race one-place penalty, after a hard pass on KTM’s Jack Miller, to overtake race leader and winner of an epic sprint race the previous day – South African Brad Binder – four laps from home.

Binder never gave up and at the flag Bagnaia, the reigning champion, who had crashed out of the previous two feature races, held on to win by 0.221s with Miller making it two KTMs on the podium for the second time over the weekend.

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Championship leader after the sprint race, Marco Bezzecchi, crashed out on lap 17.

England's Sam Lowes won the Moto2 race at Jerez.England's Sam Lowes won the Moto2 race at Jerez.
England's Sam Lowes won the Moto2 race at Jerez.

It was a disaster for 2021 champion Fabio Quartararo as the Monster Energy Yamaha rider had to deal with two long lap penalties, eventually finishing 10th.

Despite Bagnaia’s penalty he was delighted with his win, saying: “I’m really happy. The progress we did from Friday is the best ever. I was in trouble with the front.

"Yesterday was better but today my team did another step. Everything was perfect. Finishing first today was great.”

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On the one-place penalty he added: “We touched but I don’t consider it a penalty.”

Sam Lowes went from pole to victory in the Moto2 race. It was a dominant performance by the British star, claiming his 10th Moto2 win and first since the 2021 Emilia Romagna GP, comfortably beating Red Bull KTM’s Pedro Acosta, who is now joint championship leader with fourth place finisher Tony Arbolino. Alonso Lopez completed the rostrum. Jake Dixon finished sixth.

“Today I felt I had something extra in my pocket,” said Lowes.

"Now, with the win we’re in a good position. I need to kick on from this. Le Mans is a track I enjoy. I took my first win for this team there.”

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Spaniard Ivan Ortola claimed back-to-back Moto3 victories with a superb last lap win at Jerez. The 18-year-old powered the Angeluss MTA KTM to victory over David Alonso, who became the first ever Columbian to stand on a MotoGP podium. Jaume Masia was third.

Related topics:Fabio QuartararoSam Lowes