Motogp Argentina Gp Race Result: MotoGP 2023: Podium lockout by Ducati as Marco Bezzecchi cruises to his first win in a wet Argentina GP – Times of India

With rain falling throughout the day, the race in Argentina saw all riders start on the wet tyres. Alex Marquez was starting from pole position, a first for him in the premier class and giving him company were two other Ducati riders – Marco Bezzecchi and Francesco Bagnai. After Joan Mir’s crash during the sprint race, he was declared unfit for the race, leaving the Repsol Honda team with no rider on the grid. In fact, only 17 riders lined up on the grid for this race as many riders had serious injuries since the start of the season.

Bezzecchi leads the Ducatis

The race ended with three Ducatis on the podium and saw Marco Bezzecchi take his first victory in MotoGP. It was also the first victory for the Mooney VR46 Racing Team, owned by MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi. After this result, Bezzecchi now leads the Riders’ Championship as Francesco Bagnaia made a rare mistake on Lap 18 at Turn 13, sliding out onto the grass. He did rejoin the race but only finished in P16 and had no points in his bag. The other Mooney VR46 Rider, Luca Marini did not have the same stellar result in the race like the sprint and was only able to finish eighth.

Johann Zarco of Prima Pramac Racing found some magic dust before the race as he climbed through the pack with great confidence. He started in sixth, dropped down to eighth and then showed a brilliant pace during the second half of the race, finally finishing in second place. Alex Marquez had one of his best weekends in MotoGP in a long while as he started the race on pole and ended it in third place. He fought with Francesco Bagnaia for a while and then had a nice scrap with Johann Zarco.

Better days for Yamaha

The surprise star of the weekend was Franco Morbidelli who managed to outqualify his teammate Fabio Quartararo. Morbidelli did not have the best time on his M1 in 2022 but was in control this weekend. He was P4 in qualifying, sprint and in race. His pace and consistency this weekend have been impressive and all eyes would be on him in the next race to see if he can keep up this kind of performance. Quartararo meanwhile had a torrid time but managed a great recovery by the end of the race. His sprint in Portimao was compromised by Joan Mir on his Honda RC213V and in the race in Argentina, he was again tagged by another Honda. This time it was Takaaki Nakagami who was going for a rather ambitious move and could not brake in time. This pushed the French rider off the track and dropped him to 16th place. However, he did manage to make a bunch of overtakes to finish P7.

Miller thrills in the rain

While Brad Binder made a stunning charge from P15 to P1 in the sprint, his race went almost in the opposite direction. He crashed out after making contact with Maverick Vinales on the first lap who was trying to make an overtake. While the South African rider managed to rejoin the race, he was plum last. Jack Miller was able to salvage some points for himself and his team by finishing sixth. He did have some decent battles with Prima Pramac riders but could not hold them off but did manage to keep Quartararo behind him. The only rookie on the grid, Augusto Fernandez, started at the back of the pack and finished in P11 on his KTM to score five points.

The not so fortunate

Speaking of Aprilia, it was not a great weekend for the Italian manufacturer. Their factory riders were very quick on Friday but could not do much on a wet track it seems. Aleix Espargaro, who won on this track for the first time last year, only finished in P15. Despite starting in P9, the Spaniard kept slipping down the order. Vinales finished three places ahead of Esparagro which was not the kind of result that the team would have wanted, coming into Argentina this weekend. Even Raul Fernandez, riding for the RNF Aprilia team finished in P14.
Two riders that seemed to have a good pace initially but started falling down the order were Alex Rins and Fabio Di Giannantonio. Fabio had started the race in 14th but managed to quickly get up to 5th. Similarly, Alex Rins also started in P12 but had made his way to fifth place during the race. Both riders, however, seemed to have taken a bit too much out of their tyres during the starting laps and could not hold on to the fifth place. Rins finally crossed the line in ninth ahead of Di Giannantonio in tenth. It was Jorge Martin who finally kept fifth place across the finish line.