MotoGP Qatar GP: Martin takes vital sprint win to roll…

MotoGP Qatar GP: Martin takes vital sprint win to roll title battle to final round

Coming into Saturday’s sprint at Losail trailing Francesco Bagnaia by 14 points, the latter could have won the 2023 title this weekend.

However, Martin’s charge to victory in the sprint and Bagnaia struggling to fifth means the gap between them shrinks to seven, ensuring the title battle will go to the final round of the year in Valencia next weekend.

Di Giannantonio scored a first sprint podium of the season on his Gresini Ducati as he looks to earn a place on the MotoGP grid next year, while poleman Luca Marini was third.

VR46 Ducati rider Marini converted pole to the holeshot off the line at the start of the 11-lap sprint, while Gresini’s Alex Marquez jumped up to second.

Behind them, Martin and Bagnaia made contact at Turn 1, the Pramac rider barging his way through into third ahead of his factory Ducati team rival.

At Turn 4, Martin ran wide and allowed Bagnaia and Honda’s Marc Marquez through, demoting him to fifth.

However, Martin eased by Marquez on the main straight to move up to fourth at the start of the second lap, before taking third from Bagnaia at Turn 10 with another aggressive overtake on his championship rival.

Just up the road, Alex Marquez launched an assault on Marini’s lead through Turns 12 and 13, but ran wide and let the VR46 rider through again.

Fabio Di Giannantonio, Gresini Racing (Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images)

At Turn 15, Bagnaia’s evening got worse as Di Giannantonio – who started second but dropped to sixth on the first lap – demoted him to fifth.

Alex Marquez attempted to take the lead from Marini again at Turn 1 on lap five but, once more, could not get his Ducati stopped and stayed in second.

Five corners later, Martin came through into second before taking the lead away from Marini at the final turn to head the field at the end of the fifth tour.

Martin broke away by close to half a second over lap six as Di Giannantonio engaged with Marini over second, but was quickly reeled in.

Di Giannantonio put Martin under close attention across the final few laps, but the Pramac rider was able to seal the win by 0.391s at the chequered flag.

Behind the podium, Alex Marquez was fourth ahead of Bagnaia, who only just kept Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales at bay.

Brad Binder was seventh on the factory team KTM from Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo and Tech3 GasGas rider Augusto Fernandez, while Pramac’s Johann Zarco missed the points in 10th.

Marc Marquez slid to 11th after running on at Turn 1 when battling for the final points paying positions in the closing stages.

Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro and RNF’s Miguel Oliveira failed to finish after a lap-one tangle that also involved Ducati’s Enea Bastianini and Yamaha’s Franco Morbidelli.

Oliveira’s Qatar GP is in doubt now after he was diagnosed with a fractured shoulder blade, while Espargaro has a small fracture to his left fibula.

The incident is due to be investigated by the FIM MotoGP stewards.

Sprint race result:

Driver Info

Cla	Rider	#	Bike	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Retirement	Points
1	J. Martin Pramac Racing	89	Ducati	11	-				12
2	F. Di Giannantonio Gresini Racing	49	Ducati	11	+0.391 0.391	0.391			9
3	L. Marini Team VR46	10	Ducati	11	+2.875 2.875	2.484			7
4	A. Marquez Gresini Racing	73	Ducati	11	+3.370 3.370	0.495			6
5	F. Bagnaia Ducati Team	1	Ducati	11	+3.957 3.957	0.587			5
6	M. Viñales Aprilia Racing Team	12	Aprilia	11	+4.239 4.239	0.282			4
7	B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	33	KTM	11	+5.761 5.761	1.522			3
8	F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing	20	Yamaha	11	+6.454 6.454	0.693			2
9	A. Fernandez Tech 3	37	KTM	11	+8.285 8.285	1.831			1
10	J. Zarco Pramac Racing	5	Ducati	11	+8.314 8.314	0.029
11	M. Marquez Repsol Honda Team	93	Honda	11	+9.596 9.596	1.282
12	J. Miller Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	43	KTM	11	+10.173 10.173	0.577
13	M. Bezzecchi Team VR46	72	Ducati	11	+10.646 10.646	0.473
14	R. Fernández RNF Racing	25	Aprilia	11	+11.117 11.117	0.471
15	F. Morbidelli Yamaha Factory Racing	21	Yamaha	11	+12.163 12.163	1.046
16	P. Espargaro Tech 3	44	KTM	11	+12.745 12.745	0.582
17	I. Lecuona Team LCR	27	Honda	11	+19.285 19.285	6.540
18	T. Nakagami Team LCR	30	Honda	11	+26.238 26.238	6.953
19	J. Mir Repsol Honda Team	36	Honda	11	+28.446 28.446	2.208
20	E. Bastianini Ducati Team	23	Ducati	11	+35.553 35.553	7.107
dnf	A. Espargaro Aprilia Racing Team	41	Aprilia	1				Accident
dnf	M. Oliveira RNF Racing	88	Aprilia	0				Accident
View full results

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