Marco Bezzecchi hit a seagull but still won a white-knuckle Australian MotoGP sprint race on Saturday, while Alex Márquez’s sixth place inched him closer to sealing second in the world championship.
France’s Fabio Quartararo threw down the gauntlet in qualifying when he shattered Bezzecchi’s Phillip Island lap record set a day earlier to bank his fifth pole of the season. But the laser-focused Italian, starting from second, simply had too much power in his Aprilia to clinch his third sprint win in the last four races. He did so despite colliding with a bird at the start, which left feathers hanging from his bike.
