Final clash
The Portimao race was full of tension at Ducati: the victory was won by a fantastic Jorge Martin, the new leader of the championship, but the greater attention inevitably attracted the clash between Pecco Bagnaia and Marc Marquez. The two world champions were fighting for fifth position but came into contact a few laps before the checkered flag, both ending up on the ground and therefore ending the Portuguese GP without points.
Messages and clarifications
After the race both the Italian and the Spaniard spoke of “therace accident“, but both had some veiled digs at their direct rival. In Austin however, where the third Sprint and third GP of 2024 will take place this weekend, the situation between the two world champions seems to have returned to calm.
The Ducati sporting director speaks to the official MotoGP channel Mauro Grassilli confirmed that there are no tensions between #1 and #93: “I texted both of them, I don’t remember if on Monday or Tuesday [dopo la gara di Austin] just writing: ‘Hey, guys, is everything under control?’. And Pecco and Marc responded to me ‘yes, everything under control, we can’t wait for COTA’. So the situation is positive, very positive“. After the crash in Portimao, Bagnaia and Marquez are fourth and sixth respectively in the World Championship standings, separated from each other by 10 points.
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