Martin wins Qatar MotoGP Sprint

Jorge Martin has cut Francesco Bagnaia’s MotoGP championship lead to seven points with victory in the Sprint at Qatar’s Lusail.

The Pramac Racing rider had an early scrap with Bagnaia for the minor placings before hitting the front on Lap 5 and then surviving late pressure from Gresini Racing’s Fabio Di Giannantonio in the closing stages of the 11-lap contest.

VR46 Racing Team’s Luca Marini finished third in an all-Ducati top five, from Gresini’s Alex Marquez and the factory Ducati Team’s Francesco Bagnaia.

Aprilia Racing’s Maverick Viñales got home in sixth, from Red Bull KTM’s Brad Binder and Monster Energy Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo.

GasGas Tech3’s Augusto Fernandez scored the final championship point on offer and Pramac Racing’s Johann Zarco rounded out the top 10, one position ahead of Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez.

Marini had qualified on pole position and led the field away, from Alex Marquez, while Martin and Bagnaia made contact as the former of the title contenders took third place going into Turn 1.

Alex Marquez and Martin both ran wide and Turn 4 and the title contender dropped from third to fifth, behind Bagnaia and Marc Marquez.

Martin used his superior Ducati engine to blaze back past the #93 Honda of Marquez when they reached pit straight again, before Di Giannantonio passed the rider who is replacing him at Gresini at Turn 2.

Half a lap later, Martin squeezed down the inside of Bagnaia at Turn 10 to reclaim third position from his main rival.

Alex Marquez went down the inside of Marini at Turn 12 but could not make the move stick, although Di Giannantonio had more luck when he overtook Bagnaia for fourth at Turn 15.

On Lap 3, Binder dived past Marc Marquez at Turn 4, with #93 also losing position to Viñales and Zarco as he tried to regroup after being forced well wide.

Alex Marquez used a slipstream to try and pass Marini into Turn 1 on Lap 5 but, again, could not pull up in time to complete the pass.

Instead, he would lose second position to Maritn at Turn 10, then third position to team-mate Di Giannantonio before Lap 5 was done.

Just up the road, Martin overtook Marini at Turn 16 to take the lead for the first time, just before the halfway mark.

Viñales got through on Binder for sixth at the start of Lap 6, and Di Giannantonio had taken second place from Marini by the end of it, at Turn 15.

At the very front of the field, Martin was trying to clear out, his lead 0.458s with six laps down and five to go.

Bagnaia, on the other hand, began to come under pressure from Viñales in the battle for fifth position, behind Martin, Di Giannantonio, Marini, and Alex Marquez.

Di Giannantonio was able to respond to Martin’s pace and catch back up to #89, the two nose-to-tail with two laps to go.

However, ‘The Martinator’ held firm to bank a crucial 12 points and guarantee that it will be a live title fight in the Valencia season finale next weekend.

Bagnaia was at least able to stave off Viñales and salvage fifth position.

It was an entertaining scrap for the final championship points on offer, with Marquez ultimately pushed out of the top 10 in the closing stages.

Red Bull KTM rider Jack Miller finished 12th after qualifying his RC16 16th on the grid.

The Ducati Team’s Enea Bastianini was classified a finisher in 20th after he was in an ugly opening lap crash.

The other parties involved, Aprilia Racing’s Aleix Espargaro and RNF Aprilia’s Miguel Oliveira, did not see the chequered flag.

Race results: Sprint race

Pos	Num	Rider	Nat	Team	Bike	Time/Gap
1	89	Jorge MARTIN	ESP	Prima Pramac Racing	Ducati	20:52.634
2	49	Fabio DI GIANNANTONIO	ITA	Gresini Racing MotoGP	Ducati	+0.391
3	10	Luca MARINI	ITA	Mooney VR46 Racing Team	Ducati	+2.875
4	73	Alex MARQUEZ	ESP	Gresini Racing MotoGP	Ducati	+3.370
5	1	Francesco BAGNAIA	ITA	Ducati Lenovo Team	Ducati	+3.957
6	12	Maverick VIÑALES	ESP	Aprilia Racing	Aprilia	+4.239
7	33	Brad BINDER	RSA	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM	+5.761
8	20	Fabio QUARTARARO	FRA	Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha	+6.454
9	37	Augusto FERNANDEZ	ESP	GASGAS Factory Racing Tech3	KTM	+8.285
10	5	Johann ZARCO	FRA	Prima Pramac Racing	Ducati	+8.314
11	93	Marc MARQUEZ	ESP	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	+9.596
12	43	Jack MILLER	AUS	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM	+10.173
13	72	Marco BEZZECCHI	ITA	Mooney VR46 Racing Team	Ducati	+10.646
14	25	Raul FERNANDEZ	ESP	CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP Team	Aprilia	+11.117
15	21	Franco MORBIDELLI	ITA	Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha	+12.163
16	44	Pol ESPARGARO	ESP	GASGAS Factory Racing Tech3	KTM	+12.745
17	27	Iker LECUONA	ESP	LCR Honda CASTROL	Honda	+19.285
18	30	Takaaki NAKAGAMI	JPN	LCR Honda IDEMITSU	Honda	+26.238
19	36	Joan MIR	ESP	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	+28.446
20	23	Enea BASTIANINI	ITA	Ducati Lenovo Team	Ducati	+35.553
DNF	41	Aleix ESPARGARO	ESP	Aprilia Racing	Aprilia	+10 laps
DNF	88	Miguel OLIVEIRA	POR	CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP Team	Aprilia

Race winner: 11 laps

Riders’ championship

Pos	Rider	Nat	Pts
1	Francesco BAGNAIA	ITA	417
2	Jorge MARTIN	ESP	410
3	Marco BEZZECCHI	ITA	323
4	Brad BINDER	RSA	257
5	Johann ZARCO	FRA	200
6	Aleix ESPARGARO	ESP	198
7	Maverick VIÑALES	ESP	179
8	Luca MARINI	ITA	178
9	Fabio QUARTARARO	FRA	158
10	Jack MILLER	AUS	156
11	Alex MARQUEZ	ESP	155
12	Fabio DI GIANNANTONIO	ITA	109
13	Franco MORBIDELLI	ITA	93
14	Marc MARQUEZ	ESP	84
15	Enea BASTIANINI	ITA	76
16	Miguel OLIVEIRA	POR	76
17	Augusto FERNANDEZ	ESP	70
18	Alex RINS	ESP	54
19	Takaaki NAKAGAMI	JPN	52
20	Raul FERNANDEZ	ESP	40
21	Dani PEDROSA	ESP	32
22	Joan MIR	ESP	24
23	Pol ESPARGARO	ESP	13
24	Lorenzo SAVADORI	ITA	9
25	Jonas FOLGER	GER	9
26	Stefan BRADL	GER	8
27	Michele PIRRO	ITA	5
28	Danilo PETRUCCI	ITA	5
29	Cal CRUTCHLOW	GBR	3
30	Iker LECUONA	ESP	0
31	Alvaro BAUTISTA	ESP	0