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MotoGP Italian GP: Bagnaia wins sprint over Marquez, Martin crashes out

At the start of the race, the factory Ducatis shot to the front ahead of polesitter Martin's Pramac bike, with reigning champion Bagnaia taking the lead from team-mate Enea Bastianini.

KTM’s Brad Binder jumped from 14th on the grid to take fourth behind Martin, with Marc Marquez dropping a place to fifth.

Heading into lap three, Bastianini was trying to reclaim the second position he had lost to Martin when he went too deep at the exit of Turn 1. As he tried to return to the racing line, the Italian was hit by Martin with the contact sending his factory-run GP24 sliding into the gravel.

The incident between the two Ducati riders was investigated, but both were cleared of any wrongdoing.

Bastianini’s exit gave Martin some breathing space for a few laps, but it didn’t take long for Marquez to close in on the points leader on his year-old GP23.

After a fruitless attempt on lap five, Marquez was finally able to complete a move going into the opening right-hander on the following tour to claim second.

By this stage of the race, Bagnaia was already sitting 1.3s clear in the lead, a seemingly healthy advantage with half the sprint already over.

But Marquez was able to bring the gap down by half a second with four laps to go, giving him a faint hope of victory in the race's closing stages.

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team (Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images)

Ultimately, Bagnaia was able to break away from Gresini rival to claim his first sprint win since last year’s Austrian GP, ending his streak of poor Saturday results in 2024.

The final place on the podium went to GasGas Tech3 rookie Pedro Acosta, who was announced as a factory KTM rider for 2025 earlier on Saturday.

Acosta moved up to third place when Martin fell off his Pramac bike at the start of lap eight, his second major mistake of 2024 after his crash out of the lead of the Spanish GP in April.

After his crash out of the sprint, Martin's lead is now down to just 27 points over Bagnaia heading into Sunday's grand prix.

Fourth place was Franco Morbidelli's best result of 2024 on the sole-remaining Pramac team bike, while Maverick Vinales was fifth in the top Aprilia after a sedate start from the front row.

Binder could only take sixth after his impressive start, some four seconds off KTM stablemate Acosta, as Fabio di Giannantonio guided his VR46 Aprilia to seventh place.

Alex Marquez (Gresini) and Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia) were classified eighth and ninth respectively, while Raul Fernandez completed the top 10 for Trackhouse.

Further behind, Jack Miller (KTM) and Marco Bezzecchi (VR46) took 11th and 12th respectively, while Yamaha’s Alex Rins recovered from a poor start that dropped him outside of the points to take 13th at the chequered flag.

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team, Marc Marquez, Gresini Racing, Pedro Acosta, Red Bull GASGAS Tech3 (Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images)

Pol Espargaro took 14th on his wildcard outing for KTM, while LCR’s Johann Zarco was the only points scorer for Honda in 15th after factory rider Joan Mir crashed out.

Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo was another former champion to retire from the sprint, the Frenchman’s race ending on lap two after Miguel Oliveira lost control of his Trackhouse Aprilia in front of him at Turn 10.

MotoGP Italian GP Sprint Results

   
1
 - 
5
   
   
1
 - 
2
   
Cla Rider # Bike Laps Time Interval km/h Retirement Points
1 Italy F. Bagnaia Ducati Team 1 Ducati 11

-

      12
2 Spain M. Marquez Gresini Racing 93 Ducati 11

+1.469

1.469

1.469     9
3 Spain P. Acosta Tech 3 31 KTM 11

+4.147

4.147

2.678     7
4 Italy F. Morbidelli Pramac Racing 21 Ducati 11

+5.421

5.421

1.274     6
5 Spain M. Viñales Aprilia Racing Team 12 Aprilia 11

+7.693

7.693

2.272     5
6 South Africa B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 33 KTM 11

+8.271

8.271

0.578     4
7 Italy F. Di Giannantonio Team VR46 49 Ducati 11

+8.571

8.571

0.300     3
8 Spain A. Marquez Gresini Racing 73 Ducati 11

+8.846

8.846

0.275     2
9 Spain A. Espargaro Aprilia Racing Team 41 Aprilia 11

+8.984

8.984

0.138     1
10 Spain R. Fernández Trackhouse Racing Team 25 Aprilia 11

+10.085

10.085

1.101      
11 Italy M. Bezzecchi Team VR46 72 Ducati 11

+10.199

10.199

0.114      
12 Australia J. Miller Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 43 KTM 11

+13.988

13.988

3.789      
13 Spain A. Rins Yamaha Factory Racing 42 Yamaha 11

+14.137

14.137

0.149      
14 Spain P. Espargaro Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 44 KTM 11

+18.259

18.259

4.122      
15 France J. Zarco Team LCR 5 Honda 11

+18.309

18.309

0.050      
16 Japan T. Nakagami Team LCR 30 Honda 11

+19.374

19.374

1.065      
17 Spain A. Fernandez Tech 3 37 KTM 11

+23.060

23.060

3.686      
18 Italy L. Savadori Aprilia Racing Team 32 Aprilia 11

+24.596

24.596

1.536      
19 Italy L. Marini Repsol Honda Team 10 Honda 11

+25.587

25.587

0.991      
dnf Spain J. Martin Pramac Racing 89 Ducati 7

4 laps

    Retirement  
dnf Spain J. Mir Repsol Honda Team 36 Honda 4

7 laps

    Retirement  
dnf Italy E. Bastianini Ducati Team 23 Ducati 2

9 laps

    Retirement  
dnf France F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing 20 Yamaha 1

10 laps

    Accident  
dnf Portugal M. Oliveira Trackhouse Racing Team 88 Aprilia 1

10 laps

    Accident  
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