Motorsport Weekend Wrap: Martin seals maiden championship; Ugochukwu wins incident-filled Macau GP
This weekend, Jorge Martin won his maiden MotoGP title, becoming the first independent team driver to do so. McLaren’s Ugo Ugochukwu won the Formula Regional World Cup in Macau.
Macau GP: McLaren junior Ugochukwu wins crash-filled race
McLaren junior driver Ugo Ugochukwu won the Macau Grand Prix to replicate his success in the qualifying race. In a race that saw five Safety Car (SC) periods and a red flag, the 17-year-old Ugochukwu led every lap.
The Formula Regional World Cup race began behind the SC as the Guia circuit had some damp patches after heavy rain earlier in the morning. A lap later, racing began a huge pile-up brought out the red flags.
Ugochukwu managed the restart perfectly while second-placed Oliver Goethe came under threat from Noel Leon. A stop-start event meant he had to control the restart often and succeeded in doing so every time.
Ugochukwu was able to keep Goethe at arm’s length to become the first American winner of the Macau GP in over 40 years. The Macau GP, an annual motorsport road racing event, includes the Formula 3 Macau Grand Prix and Macau Motorcycle Grand Prix title races, with other races for touring, grand touring, sports and Formula 4 cars.
RELATED | Solidarity Grand Prix: Jorge Martin becomes MotoGP 2024 World Champion
Moto GP: Bagnaia’s Barcelona win goes in vain; Martin crowned 2024 champion
Prima Pramac Racing’s Jorge Martin was crowned the 2024 MotoGP world champion. Despite finishing third at the Solidarity Grand Prix, which was won by his title rival Francesco Bagnaia of Ducati, the 24-point advantage he had over the Italian heading into the weekend proved to be enough.
Martin led by 19 points heading into the final race of the season after he crossed the line third in the sprint. Bagnaia won Saturday’s event with help from his teammate Enea Bastianini in second. But all the Spaniard needed to do was finish in the top nine to clinch the title.
On Sunday, Martin made sure he did everything right and rounded up the podium spots, behind winners Bagnaia and Marc Marquez. His 32 podiums across sprints and races earned him the title by 10 points.
The Spaniard became the first independent team driver to win the championship title in the modern MotoGP era. The last driver to do so was Valentino Rossi in 2001.
