MotoGP Argentina: Bezzecchi peerless for superb maiden Argentina victory

Marco Bezzecchi has become MotoGP’s newest race winner after mastering the slippery conditions at Termas de Rio Hondo to claim a dominant Argentinian MotoGP victory.

Having fallen just shy of victory in Saturday’s MotoGP Sprint Race, the Italian put in an inch-perfect performance in the main MotoGP feature on the Mooney VR46 Racing to take a clear victory, the first in MotoGP for himself and Valentino Rossi’s satellite Ducati team.

He led home a Ducati 1-2-3 from Johann Zarco and pole sitter Alex Marquez, though there was disappointment for Pecco Bagnaia, the erstwhile championship leader losing a likely podium - and his place at the top of the standings - by sliding off track with eight laps to go.

With tricky wet conditions posing a test for the riders, the opening turns drew a ginger approach from the field, even if Franco Morbidelli’s lunge for the lead at Turn 1 did - as in the Sprint Race - send him wide.

Allowing Bezzecchi to nose ahead of pole man Marquez on the exit, from here the 2022 Rookie of the Year quickly set about making the most of the clear track ahead to establish a gap he’d steadily build on over the 25-lap distance.

With no rider making in-roads on the Italian’s margin, he was able to ease off in the closing stages and take the flag as a MotoGP race winner for the first time.

Indeed, it was double the celebration for Bezzecchi with his victory - coupled to Bagnaia’s failure to score - allowing him to leapfrog to the top of the MotoGP standings, nine points clear of his factory counterpart.

Having negotiated the busy opening few laps to join Marquez in breaking away in the battle for second, Bagnaia suffered a low-side at the penultimate corner in the closing stages. He remounted but took