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MotoGP San Marino GP: Martin dominates to ignite title charge as Pedrosa stars

Pramac’s Jorge Martin ignited his championship hopes with a dominant victory in the San Marino Grand Prix as KTM wildcard Dani Pedrosa starred.

Having led from start to finish in Saturday’s sprint, Martin did the same from pole in Sunday’s full-distance race at Misano.

Capitalising on the injuries for championship leader Francesco Bagnaia and VR46’s Marco Bezzecchi from their respective Barcelona crashes, Martin’s second double of the season has put him just 36 points behind in the standings.

Pedrosa piled immense pressure on Bagnaia in the grand prix but came up just 0.669 seconds from a first podium since his last win in 2017 in Valencia.

It marked his second fourth of the weekend having narrowly missed the podium in the sprint.

Pedrosa’s result on Sunday means he has overtaken former Honda team-mate Marc Marquez in the championship by one point, having contested just two grand prix weekends in 2023.

Marquez’s gamble on a soft rear tyre paid off with his best Sunday result since Malaysia last year in seventh.

Martin grabbed the holeshot from pole on his Pramac-run Ducati as Bagnaia – riding a one-off yellow livery on his GP23 - carved his way into second ahead of Bezzecchi.

KTM’s Pedrosa slotted into fourth despite a big rear moment on the direction change from Turn 1 to Turn 2, though he soon swapped places with team-mate Brad Binder.

Source: Autosport

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