Gresini Ducati’s Marc Marquez battled back from yet another disastrous start to claim a stunning victory over Jorge Martin at the Australian Grand Prix.
Francesco Bagnaia was third for the factory Ducati team, unable to keep the Spanish duo in sight as they traded the lead over the final four laps at Phillip Island.
The result means Pramac Ducati’s Martin stretches his championship points lead over Bagnaia to 20, with Marquez moving into a clear third place.
Just as in the sprint on Saturday, Marquez lost several positions after the lights went out. This time it was a hairy moment of wheelspin that almost caught him out. It was caused by a tear-off he had thrown away moments before it getting stuck under the rear wheel.
That allowed sprint winner Martin to tip completely unchallenged into the first corner ahead of Marco Bezzecchi (VR46 Ducati) and Bagnaia.
Meanwhile, Marquez immediately set about recovering. The Spaniard actually did so even faster than on Saturday, passing Bagnaia into Doohan on lap six. Bezzecchi had by this stage taken the long lap penalty he’d been issued for causing a collision with Maverick Vinales in the sprint – and then crashed out a lap later.
Martin, Marquez and Bagnaia were covered by just over a second on lap 10, and the stage looked set for a three-rider battle to the flag. Bagnaia very briefly led Martin on lap 12, in fact, but couldn’t make it stick and Marquez immediately slipped through into second.
Bagnaia was then unable to remain with the two Spanish stars, to whom he has given up pace all weekend. While he dropped back into a lonely ride for third, Marquez took his time plotting his move on Martin.
The eight-time world champion needed two attempts. The first came on lap 24 of 27, but Martin reclaimed the advantage heading into Doohan on the next lap.
A few turns on, at Miller, Marquez thrust it up the inside once again. He remained on the ideal racing line into and through Siberia and was able to edge out a slight advantage by doing so.
Martin had a hopeful look into Doohan on the penultimate lap but thought the better of it. He then lost decisive time at Stoner, as Marquez registered the fastest second sector of the race to break his challenge.
Marquez then eased to victory by almost a full second at the conclusion of a relatively uneventful last lap.
VR46 rider Fabio di Giannantonio emerged on top of a close and dynamic battle for fourth place involving Enea Bastianini (Ducati), Franco Morbidelli (Pramac Ducati), Brad Binder (KTM) and Maverick Vinales (Aprilia).
Fabio Quartararo came home a couple of seconds down on Vinales, winning a scrap of his own with Trackhouse Aprilia’s Raul Fernandez, KTM’s home favourite Jack Miller and 2023 Australian GP winner Johann Zarco (LCR Honda).
The last points scorers were Alex Rins (Yamaha), Luca Marini (Honda) and Alex Marquez (Gresini Ducati).
Rookie sensation Pedro Acosta did not start the race after being ruled out by an injury picked up in his sprint crash with Maverick Vinales.
MotoGP Australian GP – Race results:

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