LUSAIL, Qatar, Nov 8 (Reuters) – Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi led from start to finish to win the Qatar Grand Prix on Sunday, denying Marc Marquez a chance to seal the MotoGP title under the lights at the Lusail International Circuit after the Ducati rider finished second.
Marquez needed to win the race while Jorge Martin had to finish outside the points to seal an eighth premier-class title but his Aprilia rival finished seventh, taking the championship fight to the penultimate round of the season in Portugal.
Marquez has a 60-point lead over Martin ahead of the next Grand Prix in Portimao while Bezzecchi, who crashed out of Saturday’s sprint in a duel with Marquez before making amends in the race, is 74 points behind.
“It feels amazing. I’m very happy. It was the performance we deserve,” said Bezzecchi, who became the first rider to win 12 races at 12 different circuits.
“It’s been a fantastic weekend for us. I’ve been super quick and super comfortable on the bike. A shame about yesterday but it’s part of the game. To bounce back like this makes everything even better.”
Trackhouse rider Raul Fernandez finished third while his team mate Ai Ogura was fourth. KTM’s Pedro Acosta was in contention for a podium early in the race but tyre pressure problems forced him to drop back and he finished sixth.
BEZZECCHI SHUTS DOOR ON MARQUEZ
Aprilia’s polesitter Bezzecchi had the perfect start off the line and the Italian shut the door when Marquez attempted to overtake on the inside of turn one, where they had collided in Saturday’s sprint.
Marquez then found himself fighting Aprilia bikes all around him as Trackhouse rider Fernandez moved past him to drop the reigning champion down to third.
Bezzecchi and Fernandez were soon more than a second clear of Marquez by lap two as the Ducati rider decided not to take any risks early on, with title rival Martin down in ninth place.
But as the gap between the top two and Marquez steadily increased, an impatient Acosta overtook his future Ducati teammate to move up to third.
However, Acosta was clearly struggling with tyre pressure, turning back and signalling Marquez to move back to third so he could slot in behind his compatriot and take advantage of the Ducati’s slipstream.
Although Martin managed to move up to fifth, little changed in the top six positions but Marquez suddenly picked up the pace on lap 13 by setting the race lap record at Lusail as he set his sights on Fernandez.
With three laps to go, Marquez made his move and surged past the Trackhouse rider on the main straight, earning a roar of approval from the stands.
But it was too late to launch an attack on Bezzecchi, who was more than three seconds ahead and took the chequered flag.
“I was very clever about my strategy. I was just trying to manage the race in the first five laps, it didn’t matter if Bezzecchi got away,” Marquez said.
“My race was with Martin especially. But then Acosta let me pass because he had a tyre pressure problem.
“I tried to control my pace. I saw that in one part of the race I was super fast… Third position was okay, but I saw that Fernandez was struggling. So you never know, I attacked and (I have) four points more.”
(Reporting by Rohith Nair in Bengaluru;Editing by Christian Radnedge and Toby Davis)
