Jorge Martin took a significant chunk out of Pecco Bagnaia’s lead in the 2023 MotoGP World Championship standings as he swept to another dominant victory in the San Marino MotoGP at Misano.

On a weekend that has seen Martin consolidate his status as the rider most likely to keep Bagnaia honest in the title race during the lattermost stages of the season, the Spaniard backed up his Sprint Race success with another lights-to-flag main GP win.

Just as he did on Saturday, Martin led every lap of Sunday’s full-length encounter, the Prima Pramac Racing rider resisting the early close attentions of fellow Ducati stablemates Bagnaia and Marco Bezzecchi before pulling clear in the closing stages to win by +1.3secs.

Indeed, Martin always stood the best chance to win against Bagnaia and Bezzecchi, the two Italians still nursing injuries from their respective accidents on lap one in Spain a weekend earlier.

Credit then to both as they latched onto the rear of Martin’s Ducati GP23 to harass him throughout the opening half of the race while simultaneously pulling away from the chasing pack.

However, as the race entered its final laps, the physical effect of their ailments began to tell as they struggled to keep pace with Martin.

Bagnaia - riding a Ducati resplendent in a special, if unfamiliar, yellow livery -  held second for much of the race against a faster, but more error-prone Bezzecchi. However, Bezzecchi would eventually find his way through at Turn 8 with nine laps remaining, before pulling clear for his sixth main race podium of the season.

Behind him, Bagnaia held on for third despite a drop in pace as both the flag - not to mention an inspired Dani Pedrosa - fast approached.

An intriguing sight as the current force of MotoGP came up against one of the fabled ‘aliens’ of yesteryear, Pedrosa once again proved he can still cut it alongside the best of today as his second wild-card outing of the year for KTM ended with his finishing just a few tenths off what would have been a stunning return to the podium.

Pedrosa’s strong result, however, was the only highlight in disastrous day for the Austrian manufacturer as Brad Binder threw away a podium chance with a crash out of fourth on lap eight, the South African remounting to fight back to 14th, while Jack Miller lasted only three laps more when he was eliminated in a tangle with Michele Pirro.

Some ten seconds off the lead, Maverick Vinales nonetheless collected solid points for Aprilia Racing in fifth place, ahead of satellite counterpart Miguel Oliveira on the RNF Racing machine.

Despite choosing softer rubber than his rivals, Marc Marquez held on for seventh at the finish, fending off the late attentions of Raul Fernandez, the Spaniard consolidating the best result of his MotoGP career en route to eighth.

On home soil, Luca Marini could manage no higher than ninth, ahead of Johann Zarco and Alex Marquez on the sister Pramac and Gresini Ducatis.

Following the heroics of his victory at the Catalunya MotoGP a week ago, there was to be no such celebrations for Aleix Espargaro on the Aprilia RS-GP as he laboured to 12th, ahead of top Yamaha rider Fabio Quartararo, with the fallen Binder and Franco Morbidelli following.

In addition to Miller and Pirro, Pol Espargaro’s rotten event ended with a fifth crash of the weekend at Turn 1, while Joan Mir was once again on the ground and into retirement.