26-year-old Jorge Martin Almoguera, nicknamed The Martinator, became the fifth Spanish-born MotoGP champion in history and the first to win a title for an independent squad since Valentino Rossi took the 2001 laurels for Nastro Azzurro Honda. It was clear that the Ducati was the bike to have for 2024, as the Italian marque found victory in 19 of this year’s 20 Grand Prix season races, three of them belonging to Martin.
Factory Ducati Lenovo squad riders Francesco Bagnaia and Enea Bastianini pushed for 13 victories combined with two-time champ Bagnaia scoring 11 on his own. Those 11 victories weren’t enough to win the championship, however, as podium consistency, a scad of Saturday sprint wins, and luck pushed Jorge to the win by just ten points. In fact this season was an all-Italian affair, as only Aprilia managed a non-Ducati victory with Maverick Viñales at the Motorcycle Grand Prix of the Americas in Texas.
Prior to last weekend’s Barcelona Grand Prix, Martin had secured a 19-point lead over Bagnaia and simply needed to finish in the top nine in the race to win the title. From the outset it was clear that Martin would keep a level head and maintain the consistency that brought him here. Settling into an easy third behind polesitter Bagnaia and Gresini Ducati team rider (and 2025 Ducati Corse rider) Marc Marquez was the winning move, as that’s where the trio finished. There wasn’t much need to fight for the win and risk losing the title fight.
With Casey Stoner’s 2007 title, and Bagnaia’s pair in 2022 and 2023, this win for Martin is just Ducati’s fourth in modern MotoGP history. It also puts Martin as just the fourth champion in history to win the title without securing the most Grand Prix victories. Here’s another weird statistic for Martin’s 2024 title: At 26 years and 293 days of age on Sunday, he’s the oldest first-time champion since the MotoGP modern title format began back in 2002.
This victory for a satellite team just proves how competitive MotoGP can be. You know, as long as your satellite team is in Ducati’s orbit.