Ducati’s Bagnaia begins MotoGP title defence with victory in Qatar

LUSAIL (Agencies):  Ducati’s defending world champion Francesco Bagnaia won the MotoGP season-opening Qatar Grand Prix on Sunday after taking the lead on the opening lap to beat Red Bull KTM’s Brad Binder and Pramac Racing’s pole sitter Jorge Martin. Bagnaia had finished fourth in Saturday’s sprint but his faultless ride to take the chequered flag in the race moved him to the top of the championship with 31 points. Binder, who also finished second in the sprint, sits two points behind with 28 while last year’s championship runner-up Martin is a point further behind. “We tried to do the maximum knowing something important had to be changed for today’s race. After today’s warm-up (the bike) was absolutely different to yesterday,” Bagnaia said after his first victory at the Lusail International Circuit. Marc Marquez finished fourth on his Gresini Racing debut aboard a Ducati bike following his switch from Honda while 19-year-old rookie Pedro Acosta nearly stole the show in search of a podium before falling back to finish ninth. Martin and Binder both shot off the line at the start as they did in Saturday’s sprint to sit first and second, but Bagnaia put his head down and made two daring overtakes to take the lead on the opening lap. “I’m super stoked with the result today. We knew it was going to be tough to make the tyres last until the end,” said Binder, who finished 1.3 seconds behind Bagnaia. Martin had dominated qualifying and the sprint but he soon found himself in a battle for second with Binder while Gresini’s Alex Marquez moved up to fifth to sit behind his brother Marc.