Francesco Bagnaia didn’t need any more convincing.

In the aftermath of Sunday’s French Grand Prix, where Jorge Martin, Marc Marquez and Bagnaia were separated by just over half a second after 41 minutes of breathless tension, the reigning MotoGP world champion was asked if the 2024 title fight was already shaping as a race in three.

Never mind that there are 16 race weekends remaining, forget that there’s a maximum of 592 world championship points still up for grabs. Bagnaia had seen enough.

Every MotoGP qualifying, practice and race LIVE and ad-break free from lights out to the chequered flag. New to Kayo? Start Your Free Trial Today >

“For me at the moment we are the three most complete riders in the championship,” he said.

“Other riders are fast enough to have a great performance and are able to win races, but I think in terms of speed and consistency … we are the most complete. For the championship, I think it will be more or less like this.”

It’s a hard argument to poke holes in. At Jerez two weeks previously, Martin crashed from the lead, setting the stage for a bare-knuckle brawl for victory that was finally settled in Bagnaia’s favour after swapping places – and paint – with Marquez.

At Le Mans, Martin stayed the course, on his bike, and in the championship lead. The rest were bit-part players on a dramatic sporting stage, a fifth act of the season played out in front of a record weekend attendance of 297,471 fans.

Martin ended the weekend with the biggest championship advantage of his premier-class career (38 points) after winning the sprint race and Grand Prix proper, while Bagnaia paid the price for a technical issue causing him to retire just three laps into Saturday’s short-form race, shipping another 12 points to his 2023 title rival in the process.

And Marquez? Finishing second twice in two days from 13th on the grid – and the way he rampaged to both rostrums – only adds to Ducati management’s headache as the decision of who to pair with Bagnaia – Martin, Marquez or incumbent Enea Bastianini – for 2025 looms larger.

MARTIN: ONE OF MY BEST

Martin’s seventh MotoGP win was one achieved with a clear head and a calculated plan. From pole position after annihilating the circuit record in qualifying, the Spaniard lost out to Bagnaia at the start and had to settle into second, but was unperturbed.

Content to let Bagnaia be the pioneer on a track that had become trickier than at any other stage over the weekend with the wind increasing and cloud cover looming, Martin bided his time until there were seven laps left. Trying – and failing – to make a pass stick at the Turn 3-4 chicane on lap 20, Martin nailed the same move one lap later.

From there, it was about hanging tough, and hanging on.

MORE MOTOGP NEWS

‘LEGS ARE SHAKING’ Inside Ducati’s rider market riddle as nuclear option emerges

‘IT’S BULLS**T’ Champ shuts down rumour, Aussie rips 2027 rules

“Being second was perfect today, because Pecco had the weight of the race,” Martin said.

“I was just trying to follow him, he was a good reference with the strange winds of today. And then with seven [laps] to go I say ‘OK, I need to try’. It was the moment.

“It was difficult to make the move, he was strong and I went wide the first time. But the second time I did perfectly, and I was able to close the line and keep the position. “Afterwards I tried to push a lot and keep the gap, don’t give him even a chance to try at the end, but I went wide with three [laps] to go and they catch me again. I was pretty nervous and tired at that time, but last lap I push, giving everything I had.”

Martin’s composure cracked as soon as he crossed the line, smashing a hole through the windscreen of his Ducati and breaking his helmet visor in jubilation.

The Spaniard’s consistency has been his calling card this season – he’s finished nine of the 10 starts between sprints and Grands Prix, and no worse than fourth – but stopped short of declaring Sunday’s triumph his greatest so far.

“I don’t think it was my biggest race, but it was one of my best ever,” he said.

“It’s the fourth time I did the [lap] record, sprint, Sunday … to beat Marc and Pecco is crazy, they are amazing champions.

“I am still not a MotoGP champion so for me, it’s incredible. Beating Marc Marquez and Pecco Bagnaia, I think is outstanding.”

‘COOK SLOWLY’: MARQUEZ FINDS THE RIGHT INGREDIENTS

Points saved, or lost? Both could be true of Marquez’s French Grand Prix weekend, where a crash in Friday practice left him outside the top 10 on the timesheets, and big scare in qualifying left him mired in 13th on the grid at a track where – in dry weather – overtaking is typically easier said than done.

Finishing 2.2secs from a sprint race win and four-tenths of a second from victory on Sunday from the fifth row of the grid showed why the 31-year-old Spaniard remains a title threat this season, even as his adaptation to the 2023-spec Ducati is far from complete.

Marquez sealed his second second-place finish in succession with a clinical pass of Bagnaia on the final lap. Fighting fatigue after having battled through the pack to be in the podium mix – “when I arrive to them, I was completely exhausted” he admitted afterwards – Marquez was hopeful he’d have one chance to ambush Bagnaia as the Italian concentrated on Martin ahead of him. At the Turn 9-10 chicane, optimism met opportunity.

“I was pushing all the race, not [any] time to relax,” he said.

“When I arrive to them I said ‘I’m not feeling well now on the bike’. I saw also that Pecco had good acceleration. It was difficult to find the point to overtake because he was defending well on Turn 3. But on that last lap, I say ‘I will be there, to see.’ I saw that Pecco was not attacking Martin, so I attack Pecco.”

A brilliant start set up Marquez’s charge to second in the sprint, but the Ducati rider found himself boxed in at the first big braking point of the lap, the Turn 3-4 chicane, in Sunday’s Grand Prix. A change of tactics was required, and after finally dispensing of Ducati’s Fabio Di Giannantonio on lap 18, he gained 2.2secs on Bagnaia and Martin in only four laps. It was nearly – but not quite – enough.

“Yesterday was an unreal start, but today we cook the podium slowly,” he said.

“Step by step we overtake the riders. I was calm, the race was super long and top five was the target in my head. But then I saw that the pace was there so when I was third … I started to attack.

“That 13th place [in qualifying] penalise a lot our race, but were able to save – this time. Next time will be more difficult. You can save one time, two times per year. Starting on the front row would help to manage the race in a different way, but for me it was more than acceptable. On Thursday in [the pre-event] the press conference if you tell me ‘you will finish second’, I will say it’s fine.”

BAGNAIA BLOODIED, NOT BOWED

Bagnaia had every reason to be despondent after finishing third in a race he’d led for 20 of the 27 laps, but the Italian was keen to play the long game and accentuate the positives after falling to 38 points behind Martin, who will retain the series lead no matter what happens at the Grand Prix of Catalunya in a fortnight’s time.

A late crash in qualifying on Saturday – Bagnaia had to scurry to find a trackside fire extinguisher as his Desmosedici smouldered after coming to a stop in the trackside gravel trap – meant he had to use his spare bike for the sprint race, with a bad start and a technical gremlin seeing him park up after just three laps in as Martin ran away to victory.

Sunday’s third continued his barren MotoGP run at Le Mans, a circuit where he’s yet to win. But considering how his weekend looked to have unravelled 24 hours earlier, 16 points on Sunday was the best possible outcome.

“Today, these two were just faster,” Bagnaia said of Martin and Marquez.

“For me, races like this are always nice. The battle was fair and it was good. A third position, I can never be satisfied … but I want to have a 360 [degree] view of the weekend.

“It’s quite positive. We were always competitive, we just had these problems yesterday that didn’t help at all. But in any case today we started better and I was able to fight. We missed the last laps, they were faster and they had something more.

“I was knowing that he (Martin) was fast, knowing he was able to follow me quite well. Marc started to attack in corner nine and he did a very good overtake [on the last lap], so it was impossible to re-attack.”

MILLER IN A ‘DIFFICULT MOMENT’

A crash while running outside of the top 10 was the continuation of a dire season for Australia’s Jack Miller, who has fewer points in 10 starts this season (24, to sit 13th in the world championship) than Martin managed in 41 minutes on Sunday afternoon.

It was a weekend of extremes for the KTM rider, who produced a brilliant lap in Friday practice to be well inside the top 10 on the timesheets, before a late crash in qualifying left him in 11th on the grid.

A superb start to Saturday’s sprint – and a gamble to run the soft-compound Michelin front tyre, something none of his rivals dared in the unusually scorching Le Mans heat – paid dividends with eighth and two world championship points, but Sunday’s race started badly and got worse.

MORE MOTOGP COVERAGE

WORST YEAR SINCE FIRST YEAR Inside Aussie’s ‘rock-bottom’ MotoGP season start

HONDA’S HORROR SHOW The story behind a giant’s decline, and the way out of the abyss

Miller made no ground from 11th on lap one, and then had the ignominy of being overtaken by teammate Brad Binder – who had started 11 places behind him after a technical issue ruined the South African’s qualifying to leave him last on the grid – after just seven laps.

Miller fell backwards to 12th from there, and then fell off his KTM in the final sector of the track where he won for Ducati in 2021 on lap 17.

“This morning felt good, this afternoon didn’t feel so great,” Miller said after he’d finished second to Pedro Acosta (GasGas) in Sunday morning’s pre-race warm-up session.

“I’m trying to understand what the difference is in the afternoons – it was the same again yesterday. I struggled to do any 31s [lap times of 1min 31secs] in the morning on used tyres, I felt mega and was able to run 31s consistently by myself, but come race time I’m really struggling to run the pace. In FP3 [Saturday morning practice] I felt like I could ride around smoking a cigarette doing that …”.

Miller’s crash was equally perplexing.

“I didn’t do anything different … braked in the same spot, I was one kilometre an hour faster than the lap before but not the fastest I’ve gone in there, but she locked,” he said.

“A real head-scratcher, just trying to understand what we can do differently to turn the ship around. I’m being an open book this year, trying to do everything I can.

“It’s a difficult moment, for sure.”