Frenchman Johann Zarco (Ducati-Pramac) scored the first victory of his MotoGP career by winning the Australian GP on Saturday ahead of championship leader Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati), while Jorge Martin (Ducati-Pramac) lost everything on the last lap and finished fifth.
Starting in fifth position, the Frenchman had a superb race and took control on the last lap while his teammate was in distress. He resisted the reigning world champion until the end.
Present in the premier category of motorcycling since 2017, Zarco, double Moto2 world champion (2015, 2016) waited until the end of his seventh season and his 120th Grand Prix to finally achieve his first success in MotoGP.
“The feeling is incredible. I had a good start and had to fight a lot. When I was behind Pecco (Bagnaia), I held on to stay in contact. We saw that Jorge Martin was slowing down a lot and I tried to pass,” he explained quickly.
“After so many races, finally winning gives me so much emotion… I still have trouble realizing it,” added the Frenchman before climbing onto the first step of the podium.
Zarco’s happiness, however, brought misfortune to Martin, who started from pole position and dominated the entire race before collapsing on the last lap and losing valuable points in the race for the world title.
The Spaniard, who is now 27 lengths behind Bagnaia in the championship, lost the very daring bet he had tried: the soft tire he had decided to put on the rear, unlike almost all his opponents. who had put on a medium tire, did not last the distance and he fell back five places on the last lap.
Italian Fabio Di Giannantonio (Ducati-Gresini) also took his chance and finished third, taking the first podium of his MotoGP career.
The other Frenchman, Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha), had a complicated race: starting in 16th position, he finally took an anonymous 14th place, a week after his podium in Indonesia (3rd).