Second sprint victory for Alex Marquez (Gresini-Ducati). After Silverstone, the Spaniard also won the Saturday race in Sepang (Malaysia). Alex Marquez took victory ahead of Jorge Martin (Pramac-Ducati) and Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati). For the first time since Barcelona, the sprint winner wasn’t named Martin.
“I had a mission today and that was to win the sprint,” says Alex Marquez. “I think we can look even better tomorrow because our race pace was really strong in final practice.”
“I really didn’t expect that things would go so well in the sprint. I didn’t expect to be able to keep up with Jorge and ‘Pecco’. ‘Pecco’ had a few problems, but everything went perfectly for me. Now we’ll be back.”
All 23 drivers opted for the medium tire at the front and rear for the short race over ten laps. Bagnaia won the holeshot ahead of his teammate Enea Bastianini. Martin fell back to fourth place behind Alex Marquez.
At the end of the first lap, Martin grabbed third place from Bastianini. The Italian was also overtaken by the KTM duo and fell back to sixth place. Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha), who fell back to 18th place, did not have a good initial phase.
Martin reduces World Cup deficit to Bagnaia
At the end of the second lap, Alex Marquez attacked Bagnaia in the finish corner, but he braked too late. Martin slipped through on the inside and was now second. Since there were no stable orders at Ducati, Alex Marquez courageously attacked and overtook Martin again.
At the halfway point of the race, Bastianini was able to work his way past the KTM duo and was back in fourth place. At the front, Alex Marquez continued to put the world champion under pressure, but initially couldn’t find a way past him.
On the sixth lap, the Spaniard finally braked past Bagnaia in Turn 9 and took the lead for the first time. A few corners later, Bagnaia was also overtaken by Martin. That was the decisive lap in the sprint.
In addition, a piece of paper was caught on the right winglet of Bagnaia’s Ducati. After one round it flew away again. Bagnaia had to defend himself in the final stages against his teammate, who had his strongest race this year.
On the last lap, Bastianini stopped attacking and Bagnaia crossed the finish line in third place. “I gave the maximum, but the maximum wasn’t good enough to win today,” sighs Bagnaia. “This race will help us be a little smarter tomorrow.”
With this result, Martin reduced his World Championship gap to Bagnaia to 11 points. “The pace was really strong. I was at my limit the whole time,” says the Spaniard. “My start wasn’t the best and I first had to regain a few positions.”
“In the first few laps I tried to pace myself a bit. It wasn’t quite enough to win today, but I’m happy to have crossed the finish line ahead of my direct opponent. I’m happy with the performance. Hopefully I can I’ll fight for victory tomorrow.”
No World Championship points for Aprilia, Yamaha and Honda
With fourth place, Bastianini achieved his best result of the season. In the last corner he successfully defended himself against Brad Binder (KTM). His teammate Jack Miller crossed the finish line in sixth place.
The other World Championship points positions went to three other Ducati riders: Marco Bezzecchi (VR46), Johann Zarco (Pramac) and Luca Marini (VR46). Aprilia, Yamaha and Honda therefore did not collect any points.
The best Aprilia rider was Maverick Vinales in tenth place. Franco Morbidelli followed in eleventh place with the Yamaha. After the difficult first lap, Quartararo was no longer able to work his way forward and crossed the finish line in 18th place.
The Honda factory team experienced a race to forget. On the third lap, Marc Marquez crashed in turn 14. One lap later, his teammate Joan Mir was hit in the finish corner. Both drove on.
Marc Marquez took the checkered flag in 21st and Mir in 23rd and last. In between, Superbike World Champion Alvaro Bautista (Ducati) finished 22nd in his wildcard start. In the ten laps, Bautista lost 36 seconds to the lead.
The 20-lap Grand Prix starts on Sunday at 08:00 CET.