Power plays, random results and the costliest crash of all: The five moments that shaped the MotoGP season

In a sport that measures lap times to one-thousandth of a second, it really is the smallest details that make the biggest difference in modern-day MotoGP.

In 2024, arguably more so than ever.

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For the third straight year, the season came down to a final-round showdown, this time in Barcelona after floods caused the last-minute cancellation of the traditional season finale scheduled for Valencia.

While Jorge Martin was able to hold on and win the title by just 10 points to dethrone reigning two-time world champion Francesco Bagnaia, it was a season of seismic shifts in a campaign with a maximum of 740 points on offer over 20 rounds, some individual moments changing the narrative of the season more than others.

The moments that had the biggest impact on the shape of MotoGP in 2024? Chronologically, for sake of clarity and what they led to, these.

MARCH: VINALES OUTLIER HAS HISTORICAL CONSEQUENCE

Ducati came to round three of the season at the Circuit of the Americas in Texas on an 11-race winning streak dating back to Misano the previous year, and more of the same was expected after Bagnaia won the season-opener in Qatar, and Martin immediately responded with victory in Portugal a fortnight later.

Maverick Vinales, though, had other ideas. The Aprilia rider was in mesmerising form as he beat rookie sensation Pedro Acosta (KTM) and COTA specialist Marc Marquez to pole, and converted on Saturday for his first sprint victory by 2.2secs over Marquez.

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With Marquez having won seven times from nine Grand Prix starts in Austin, Vinales still looked like a long shot the next day, and a disastrous start where he dropped to 11th on the first lap looked to have sealed his fate.

The Spaniard then regrouped to storm through the pack, benefiting from a Marquez crash just as the Ducati rider had taken the lead on lap 11 and bullying his way past Acosta two laps later to reclaim the lead and take victory, becoming the first rider to win Grands Prix with three different manufacturers after previous victories with Suzuki and Yamaha.

It was impressive at the time, but became more so the longer 2024 went. Ducati won each of the 17 remaining Grands Prix and all but one sprint, Vinales’ teammate Aleix Espargaro inheriting the Catalunya sprint when Bagnaia inexplicably crashed his Ducati from a commanding lead on the final lap.

Ducati riders locked out the Grand Prix podium in all but three Sunday races after Austin, and Vinales never finished better than fifth in a race again, falling to seventh in the standings by season’s end.

In a year of unparalleled dominance by one manufacturer, it took MotoGP’s most mercurial rider to deny Ducati a sweep of the season with a result that looks more anomalous as time marches on.

JUNE: MARTIN TAKES CONTROL OF HIS DESTINY

Martin arrived in Italy for round seven with the championship lead and a pep in his step, having seemingly secured the ride he’d coveted for the best part of two years with Ducati’s factory team as teammate to Bagnaia.

The Italian press with a pipeline to Ducati’s senior brass were so sure of Martin’s promotion from Pramac Racing to replace Enea Bastianini for 2025 that they ran with stories saying the Spaniard’s future was assured, pending contract details being ironed out.

Enter MotoGP’s primary chaos agent, Marc Marquez.

When Marquez shot down speculation that he’d be replacing Martin at Pramac – “it’s not an option for me” became the most consequential six words uttered all season – Martin’s world turned upside down. After crashing from the Mugello sprint and being elbowed to third on the final lap of the Grand Prix – by Bastianini – Martin had a face like thunder as he realised what was about to happen. Marquez’s power flex had Ducati over a barrel, and he knew who’d come out the loser.

PIT TALK PODCAST: In the latest episode of ‘Pit Talk’, Renita Vermeulen and Matt Clayton are joined by MotoGP race-winner Chris Vermeulen to recap all the storylines behind Jorge Martin sealing his maiden premier-class title in Barcelona, Francesco Bagnaia’s best season yet going unrewarded, and the final race at KTM for Australia’s Jack Miller.

The day after the Mugello race, a fuming Martin hastily signed with Aprilia as a replacement for the retiring Aleix Espargaro, who helped to secure his good friend’s future. Two days later, Marquez’s signature on a factory contract to partner Bagnaia was inevitably announced, creating a super-team the likes of which MotoGP hadn’t seen since the uneasy Valentino Rossi/Jorge Lorenzo pairing of the late 2000s.

After Marquez rejected Pramac, Ducati’s official customer team had its head turned by Yamaha, signing on to become the Japanese manufacturer’s second team and ending a two-decade relationship with the Italian marque. The rider market, almost spun off its axis by the chain of events, saw new names announced with different teams on an almost daily basis with half the season to go.

With Martin still in the championship lead after Mugello, Ducati management faced the possibility that a rider it spurned could well win the title and take the coveted number 1 plate reserved for the sport’s champion to another brand for 2025.

It was an uncomfortable truth they’d have to learn to live with, and gave Martin – never short of motivation at any time – some extra juice for the remaining 13 rounds.

SEPTEMBER: BAGNAIA SHOCKER FLIPS THE SCRIPT

By round 12, Bagnaia was back where he’d been for the best part of 18 months – in the lead of the championship. Two weeks earlier in Austria, he’d absolutely smashed the rest of the field in the sprint and Grand Prix to reclaim the championship lead by five points over Martin, who looked powerless to respond as his 2023 title rival won for the fifth time in six Grands Prix.

And then came Aragon, and a weekend that will haunt Bagnaia in perpetuity.

A resurfaced, low-grip track with predominantly anti-clockwise corners played perfectly into Marquez’s sweet spot, and the Gresini Ducati rider duly dominated in taking his first sprint win ever, and his first Grand Prix success in 1043 days.

It was a race for best of the rest, and one Bagnaia lost as he laboured to ninth and just one championship point in the sprint as Martin finished second and re-took the series lead by three points.

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Bagnaia needed to respond on Sunday, and methodically worked his way up to fourth behind a rampaging Marquez and a cautious Martin as he stalked Ducati’s Alex Marquez for the final spot on the podium in the closing stages, a third-place result meaning he’d only lose four more points to the Pramac rider.

With six laps left, Bagnaia tried a pass at the turn 13 right-hander and the pair crashed, Bagnaia ending up pinned beneath Marquez’s bike as they disappeared in a cloud of dust. Bagnaia was sore from the impact but more seething about Marquez’s conduct, and the clash being assessed as a racing incident only incensed him further.

The ramifications were significant. Martin’s lead ballooned to 23 points, and Bagnaia never led the championship again despite winning four more Grands Prix to Martin’s one the rest of the way, an 11-win season seeing him fall short of a hat-trick of titles.

One point across a single weekend remains, by some distance, Bagnaia’s worst since the sprint race format debuted in 2023, and Bagnaia carried a sense of injustice about the incident for months, specifically referencing it after the Australian Grand Prix in mid-October.

OCTOBER: MARTIN’S ESCAPE FROM POTENTIAL PERIL

Martin was primarily the architect of his own demise in the 2023 title fight with Bagnaia, after a succession of crashes and tactical errors from a position of advantage.

Martin’s past meant eyebrows were raised the race after he’d benefited from Bagnaia’s Aragon misery, where he squandered a likely second place in Misano by pitting for a wet-weather bike as drizzle hit the track early in the San Marino Grand Prix, the rain soon abating and requiring a second pit stop for his original bike as he finished a red-faced 15th.

It was a sign Martin’s decision-making under pressure – best exemplified in Australia the previous year when he threw away a win with a risky tyre choice – could rear its head as a decisive factor once more, and when Martin crashed in qualifying in Japan two rounds later and started a season-worst 11th as Bagnaia qualified second, the Spaniard’s 21-point lead seemed shaky.

Bagnaia profited from first-time pole-sitter Acosta crashing out twice in 24 hours to win both races at Motegi, but Martin mitigated the damage with mature, controlled rides to fourth in the sprint and second in the Grand Prix, leaving Japan for Phillip Island and the final four rounds with a 10-point advantage.

A trip-wire that would have seen Martin stumble in 2023 had been avoided, and had significant consequences the rest of the way. Once events in Australia, Thailand, Malaysia and Barcelona had been run and won the rest of the way, Martin’s championship-winning margin was … 10 points.

NOVEMBER: ONE MISTAKE TOO MANY FOR BAGNAIA

Bagnaia’s task was steep but achievable when the paddock decamped at Sepang for the penultimate Grand Prix of the season in Malaysia; the reigning world champion trailed Martin by 17 points with 74 left on offer, but had momentum after a superbly-judged win in the wet in Thailand the previous weekend.

With so much at stake, the riders who’ve proven to be on a different level to the rest for the past two seasons upped the ante in qualifying, where they pulverised Bagnaia’s circuit-record lap of 1min 57.491secs set the previous year.

Bagnaia clocked an absurd 1:56.337 to take pole, two-tenths of a second ahead of Martin; Alex Marquez in third was nearly one second slower after a jaw-dropping Q2 that showed how much the two title protagonists were pushing the boundaries.

Come the sprint race later that afternoon, Bagnaia pushed too far. Three laps into the 10-lap sprint and with Martin ahead of him, the reigning world champion crashed out of second place and spotted his title rival a 29-point advantage, meaning Martin could mathematically seal his maiden MotoGP championship in the next day’s Grand Prix.

Bagnaia won the feature race in Sepang after a gloves-off battle with Martin to stay alive for the final round in Barcelona, but it was academic; the Italian won all three races after his Sepang spill, but Martin only needed to finish inside the top nine even if Bagnaia won the final race in Catalunya, which he managed easily with third for his 32nd podium in 40 starts.

Bagnaia’s eighth and last non-finish of the season – compared to Martin’s three – was the tipping point, and the final significant moment of a season defined by Martin’s evolution to combine speed with smarts, and Bagnaia’s fastest campaign yet squandered by mistakes and misfortune.