Enea Bastianini completes Silverstone double as Martin reclaims championship lead

Enea Bastianini completed an impressive Silverstone double after winning Sunday’s British MotoGP race as Jorge Martin reclaimed the championship lead.

Ducati’s Enea Bastianini showcased an impressive performance at the British MotoGP, held at Silverstone, where he claimed victory on Sunday, marking a significant milestone as he completed a remarkable weekend double following Saturday’s Sprint win.

The Italian’s victory was marked by a masterful late-race charge that ultimately saw him overtake Jorge Martin, who finished second taking the championship lead from Francesco Bagnaia, who crossed the line in third.

The race began with Francesco Bagnaia leading the pack, followed closely by Jorge Martin and Bastianini. However, Martin soon found himself in a precarious position after a collision with Aleix Espargaro, which saw him drop to fourth place.

Meanwhile, Brad Binder’s promising start from sixth was watered down after he suffered an engine issue, which caused him to fall to the back of the grid and later out of the running before the first lap’s completion.

It was not long before the race claimed more casualties as Trackhouse Aprilia duo Raul Fernandez and Miguel Oliveira both crashed out in the opening lap in what was a disastrous day for the American outfit.

Lap 3 saw Pramac’s Martin and Espargaro establish overtakes on factory Ducati’s Bastianini, as Espargaro proceeded to clock in the fastest lap to try and keep himself in contention with the two title contenders at the front.

As the first few laps unfolded, the leading group began to establish itself, with Bagnaia at the front, followed closely by Martin and Espargaro.

Espargaro and Bastianini changed positions again and the #23 now seemed to be effectively in fourth place for longer, while Martin tried to make up ground on Bagnaia: he went from 0.562s to 0.252s, but the gap was soon in the region of three tenths and then dropped again.

Meanwhile, the Gresini Ducati brothers were keeping themselves in contention with the GP24s, but younger brother Alex Marquez was losing time to the leading five. Further back, Fabio Di Giannantonio overtook Pedro Acosta aboard his VR46 Ducati, taking the seventh spot.

A couple of laps later, Marquez was overtaken by Fabio Di Giannantonio, while Bagnaia gained 0.1s on Martin. Espargaro was third with 0.627s to the race leader, and Bastianini remained fourth ahead of Marc Marquez.

However, Espargaro ran wide at the end of the Hangar straight, which allowed Bastianini to reclaim third spot. Meanwhile, Martin found an opening to forge his way through Bagnaia at the start of Lap 12, but the following Lap ran wide in the same corner, which brought Bastianini back into contention.

Martin pushed his lead out once more, but Bagnaia was under pressure from his team-mates.However, the championship leader made a small mistake through Turn 7 at Luffield which put Bastianini up into second, with the factory Ducati rider eyeing the main prize.

Further back, the race claimed another rider as Joan Mir was forced to enter the pitlane early, a disappointing outcome for the 2020 champion who was once occupying the tail end of the points.

Older brother Marquez was the next rider to overtake Espargaro to take fourth spot, eyeing up a late podium move. At the front, Martin started to struggle, which enabled Bastianini to squeeze past following a mistake in the second last lap.

Bastianini and factory Ducati’s win puts him back in contention for the championship as Martin regains the lead off Bagnaia following the reigning double champion’s Sprint race crash.

Bagnaia could only muster third position, with Marquez slotting his Gresini in fourth and only a second adrift of his future GP25 team-mate. Di Giannantonio held off Espargaro in the final laps to take fifth, with the Aprilia not being able to extract anything in the latter stages.

Marquez and Gresini salvaged seventh with Marco Bezzecchi a distant eighth, ahead of lead KTM rider Pedro Acosta as Pramac rider Franco Morbidelli rounded off the top ten despite the double long lap penalty he was issued from Saturday’s Sprint.

2024 British MotoGP Results