MotoGP France: Martin Victorious as Marquez Beats Bagnaia on Last Lap

MotoGP arrives in Le Mans this weekend for the French Grand Prix, round five of the 2024 season. Although he crashed out of the lead at Jerez, Jorge Martin arrives in Le Mans with a 17-point championship lead over Francesco Bagnaia, the Spanish GP winner.

Overview

• Grand Prix - Martin defeats Bagnaia, Marquez in late-race battle

• Sprint - Martin dominates as Bagnaia retires, Marquez goes 13th-to-second

• Qualifying - Jorge Martin sets first-ever 1:29 for Le Mans pole despite Q2 crash

• Friday Practice - Martin fastest with the lap record, Marquez misses Q2

• 2023 - Bezzecchi dominates as Bagnaia, Vinales collide

Grand Prix

Jorge Martin took his second Grand Prix victory of the season in France, converting from pole position ahead of Francesco Bagnaia and Marc Marquez.

It was Bagnaia who did most of the leading, though - he did so for 20 laps. Martin was never more than half-a-second behind, though, and made his first attack on lap 20 at turn three.

By this point the two were almost two seconds ahead of third place, but by lap 21 Marc Marquez was right with them. This was in part due to the battling between the two, but also down to Marquez’ exceptional late race pace.

Martin made his move stick at turn three on that 21st lap, but Bagnaia stuck on his rear tyre. The two were mostly inseparable around the lap, but Martin was clearly stronger in turn nine.

The similarity between the two meant that Bagnaia struggled to find a way back to the lead, and entered the final lap in second place.

Still looking for a way past Martin, Bagnaia’s victory chances were ended at turn nine when Marquez exposed Bagnaia’s weakness in that corner - where he crashed in Q2 - on the last lap to take second place.

This gave Martin a three-tenth lead that was impossible for Marquez to bridge before the end of the race, and so the #89 took his second win of the season in fine style.

Marquez defended the last sector perfectly from Bagnaia, who had to settle for third place, and falling to 38 points behind Martin in the championship.

Enea Bastianini took fourth place, ahead of Maverick Vinales on the Aprilia, while Fabio Di Giannantonio was the fifth Ducati inside the top six positions, and Franco Morbidelli the sixth in the top seven. Brad Binder was eighth after starting last, Aleix Espargaro fell to ninth after an incident with Enea Bastianini, and Alex Marquez rounded out the top 10.

Full MotoGP results from the French Grand Prix are below.

2024 MotoGP French Grand Prix | Grand Prix Result

Sprint

Jorge Martin won the MotoGP Sprint in France, leading lights-to-flag after an exceptional start from pole position.

While Martin nailed his start, Francesco Bagnaia went backwards from second on the grid. By the end of lap one, Bagnaia was 15th, and he retired after going wide at Museum on lap four.

Marc Marquez made a tremendous start and was sixth by the end of lap one. Cutting through some more riders and benefiting from others’ mistakes brought him up to second by the end, but two seconds adrift of Martin.

The closest anyone got to Martin was Marco Bezzecchi, who got to within half-a-second in the first half of the race, but he was over a second back before he crashed at turn nine.

Maverick Vinales was third, and was one of Marquez’ mid-race victims, but held off Enea Bastianini who went from 10th on the grid to finish fourth.

Aleix Espargaro was third off the line, but he’d jumped the start. A double long lap penalty dropped him to fifth.

Pedro Acosta took sixth place despite a huge front slide at the penultimate corner. He was ahead of Fabio Di Giannantonio, Jack Miller, and Raul Fernandez who took the final point in ninth.

Full MotoGP results from the French Sprint are below.

2024 MotoGP French Grand Prix | Sprint Result

Qualifying

Jorge Martin set the first ever 1:29 lap of Le Mans by a MotoGP bike to take pole position for the French Grand Prix.

Martin crashed on his second run of Q2, but the Pramac Ducati rider’s 1:29.919 from his first run was enough to keep him on pole.

Francesco Bagnaia was on course to take that away from Martin until he crashed himself at turn nine. Bagnaia nonetheless hung on to second place, securing his first front row of the season.

Maverick Vinales qualified third on the leading Aprilia, while the second RS-GP of Aleix Esaprgaro was sixth, behind the VR46 Ducatis of Fabio Di Giannantonio and Marco Bezzecchi on row two.

Pedro Acosta qualified seventh, ahead of home hero Fabio Quartararo on the Yamaha in eighth and Franco Morbidelli in ninth. 

Enea Bastianini was on course for pole position when yellow flags for Bagnaia’s turn nine crash cancelled his lap. Mechanical issues then ended Bastianini’s session early and he finished 10th, ahead of Jack Miller and Miguel Oliveira.

Marc Marquez failed to make Q2 through Q1, after a front slide between turns two and three cost him his penultimate lap, and a crash for Johann Zarco brought out yellow flags to cancel his final lap. Marquez will start 13th, which is at least better than for Brad Binder, who qualified last.

Full MotoGP results from qualifying and he pre-qualifying FP2 in Le Mans are below.

2024 MotoGP French Grand Prix | Qualifying Result

2024 MotoGP French Grand Prix | FP2 Result

Friday Practice

Jorge Martin was fastest in both FP1 and Practice on Friday in Le Mans. The Spanish rider set a 1:30.388 on Friday afternoon to take the lap record with him into Saturday.

Francesco Bagnaia was second-fastest. Bagnaia’s final lap looked on course to take the fastest time of the day away from Martin, but he ran wide in the penultimate corner, and so he remained 0.145 seconds shy of the Pramac Racing rider.

The best KTM rider was once again GasGas’ Pedro Acosta in third, while Aprilia’s best representative was Maverick Vinales in fourth place.

Fabio Di Giannantonio was fifth-fastest, ahead of Jack Miller in sixth, Aleix Espargaro in seventh, Franco Morbidelli in eighth, and Marco Bezzecchi in ninth.

Behind, a 1:30.788 was enough to put Yamaha's Fabio Quartararo in the top 10 and directly through to Q2 in front of his home fans.

Of course, Marc Marquez therefore missed out, finishing 13th after a messy time attack from the eight-times champion. In a similar vein, Brad Binder missed out on Q2 after crashing three times on Friday, including twice in Practice.

Full MotoGP results from FP1 and Practice in France are below.

2024 MotoGP French Grand Prix | PR Result

2024 MotoGP French Grand Prix | FP1 Result

2023

2023 MotoGP French Grand Prix | Circuit Bugatti | Grand Prix Results

2023 MotoGP French Grand Prix | Circuit Bugatti | Sprint Results

2023 MotoGP French Grand Prix | Circuit Bugatti | Qualifying Results

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