Indian MotoGP, Buddh – Race Results

* Rookie

Marco Bezzecchi makes amends for Saturday’s Sprint misery with victory in the inaugural Indian MotoGP – while a big mistake for Francesco Bagnaia has put Jorge Martin within reach of the title lead.

• Indian MotoGP: New World Championship standings

Bezzecchi soon disappeared into the distance, leaving Bagnaia and Martin to fight toe-to-toe for the first half of the race. But just as the reigning champion looked to have got the better of the Pramac rider, he ed on entry to turn 5.

Bagnaia’s downfall promoted Fabio Quartararo to his second podium of the season for Yamaha – and the Frenchman almost pinched second place from an exhausted Martin, who ran wide on the final lap!

The Spaniard frantically responded, squeezing back past Quartararo to narrowly secure the runner-up spot before skipping parc ferme to beg for water from his pit box. There are reports that Martin may have subsequently fainted due to heat exhaustion, delaying the podium ceremony.

Meanwhile, questions will also be asked of Martin’s unzipped leathers for part of the race, with the rules stating: “equipment must be worn, correctly fastened, at all times during on-track activity.”

Brad Binder was fourth for KTM with Joan Mir celebrating by far his best Honda result in fifth.

• Indian Moto2: Latest Results
• Indian Moto3: Latest Results

Martin took the holeshot but was soon stripped of the lead when Bagnaia pounced under braking at the end of the back straight.

But Bezzecchi, who stormed from last (after being hit by VR46 team-mate Luca Marini at turn 1) to fifth in the Sprint, had passed them both by the end of the opening lap and never looked back for his third MotoGP victory.

Martin worked his way back past Bagnaia but couldn’t shake off the reigning champion, who almost tagged the Pramac Ducati when he was sucked in by the dirty air at the end of the back straight.

Their battle raged until Bagnaia – the only rider running the hard front tyre – cut under Martin at the banked Turn 9. Bezzecchi was already 5sec clear but it was soon immaterial with Bagnaia’s accident leaving the Italian to walk away shaking his head and clenching his fists in frustration.

Meanwhile, Martin’s leathers were visibly unzipped, prompting the risk of a penalty. But he re-zipped the leathers a few laps later and entered the final lap a comfortable 1.5s ahead of Quartararo – until the Turn 4 scare.

Martin is now just 13 points from Bagnaia and the world championship lead.

Marc Marquez was holding an early fourth behind the trio of Ducatis when he got out of shape on the brakes and then lowsided at Turn 1. Rejoining 16th, Marquez recovered to ninth.

The Spaniard’s mishap had handed fourth to Quartararo with Mir, Binder and Aleix Espargaro in tow. But a technical issue saw Espargaro tour back to the pits at half distance, a fate shared by Augusto Fernandez and, potentially, Fabio di Giannantonio (Update: di Giannantonio pitted due to his shoulder injury.

Today’s race took place in front of 58,605 fans for a total of 111,762 for the weekend.

Alex Marquez and Luca Marini missed today’s race after suffering fractures on Saturday. Marquez broke three ribs in qualifying while Marini broke his left collarbone after hitting the back of team-mate Marco Bezzecchi at Turn 1 of the Sprint race.

Both will also miss next weekend’s Japanese Grand Prix.

Following Friday’s feedback from riders and official tyre suppliers in the hot and humid conditions, race distances were adjusted with one lap taken off the MotoGP Sprint, Moto2 and Moto3 races, while Sunday’s MotoGP Grand Prix was shortened by three laps:

MotoGP Sprint: 11 laps
Moto3: 16 laps
Moto2: 18 laps
MotoGP: 21 laps

Michelin offered a wider choice of tyres for this weekend, four fronts and three rears, as MotoGP faced its first new event without any prior testing in over a decade.

The 13-turn ex-F1 track featured several sizeable straights, the longest at just over 1km, plus banked corners at 8 & 9 and what proved to be a tricky Turn 1.

Missing this weekend were Ducati’s Enea Bastianini – who fractured his hand and ankle during a multi-rider pile-up in Catalunya, moments before team-mate Bagnaia was run over following a highside – and LCR Honda’s Alex Rins, who is still recovering from leg fractures at Mugello in May.

HRC test rider Stefan Bradl is replacing Rins, with Ducati test rider Michele Pirro in place of Bastianini.