MotoGP San Marino GP: Martin denies Bagnaia in sprint to extend title lead

Jorge Martin produced a masterclass of pace and consistency after a stunning start to win his fifth sprint of the MotoGP season at Misano. 

The Spaniard, who was fourth on the grid, increased his margin at the top of the standings by three points thanks to his defeat of Francesco Bagnaia, extending his winning run at the track where he completed the double in 2023.

Having gone three weekends without a sprint or grand prix victory, Martin said: "Finally back winning, so I am super happy.

"I think we did a good job from practice where I was struggling because we we’re trying to find perfection so it was quite difficult.

“I expected to be fighting with Pecco [Bagnaia] but I did not expect to do it from the start and at that point I thought, OK, 13 laps and I was trying not to make any mistakes and be focused and finally, I had a gap to keep for the last two laps so I was super happy.

“For tomorrow it is another sprint but I feel confident. We are in a good way.”

Bagnaia led home the second Pramac of Franco Morbidelli, who picked up his first sprint podium since the Saturday races were introduced last term. “We were hoping and waiting for this kind of performance,” he said. “Misano was the right place to do it.”

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But an unhappy Bagnaia conceded: “I tried, but Jorge was braking hard. The start was a disaster, but second position after what happened last week [his crash at the Aragon GP] is OK. We’ll work to improve the start.”
 
Ducati’s Enea Bastianini was fourth and only two seconds away from the winner, completing a 1-2-3-4 for the Desmosedici GP24s. A spectacular late move from Gresini's Marc Marquez clinched fifth from Tech3 GasGas's Pedro Acosta - the 20-year-old the first non-Ducati to finish.

KTM’s Brad Binder and Jack Miller were seventh and eighth respectively, with Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo scoring a point in ninth - Gresini’s Alex Marquez almost overtook the Frenchman but had to settle for 10th.

Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales was the first among the Noale collective in 11th ahead of team-mate Aleix Espargaro. Johann Zarco was again the highest Honda racer thanks to his 13th position on the LCR machine.
 
Track limits warnings were issued for more than half the field across the 13-lap distance and Augusto Fernandez was the first repeat offender. The Spaniard then incorrectly filtered through the long lap section and was hit with a three-second time penalty to finish 16th.
 
The sprint was a torrid affair for the VR46 team with Fabio Di Giannantonio crashing at Turn 14 on the second lap and then pulling out at mid-race distance, while Marco Bezzecchi fluffed his start to drop from third on the grid to eighth and then fell through Turn 2 with nine laps to go, leaving the GP23 in fiery state.

MotoGP San Marino GP - Sprint results

Main Information Additional Data Additional Data Driver Info Driver Info

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Main Information Additional Data 1  -  2
Cla	Rider	#		Bike	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Retirement	Points
1	J. Martin Pramac Racing	89		Ducati	13	19'56.502		165.2		12
2	F. Bagnaia Ducati Team	1		Ducati	13	+1.495 19'57.997	1.495	165.0		9
3	F. Morbidelli Pramac Racing	21		Ducati	13	+1.832 19'58.334	0.337	165.0		7
4	E. Bastianini Ducati Team	23		Ducati	13	+2.041 19'58.543	0.209	165.0		6
5	M. Marquez Gresini Racing	93		Ducati	13	+6.469 20'02.971	4.428	164.4		5
6	P. Acosta Tech 3	31		KTM	13	+6.796 20'03.298	0.327	164.3		4
7	B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	33		KTM	13	+9.979 20'06.481	3.183	163.9		3
8	J. Miller Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	43		KTM	13	+10.726 20'07.228	0.747	163.8		2
9	F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing	20		Yamaha	13	+11.015 20'07.517	0.289	163.7		1
10	A. Marquez Gresini Racing	73		Ducati	13	+11.352 20'07.854	0.337	163.7
11	M. Viñales Aprilia Racing Team	12		Aprilia	13	+11.658 20'08.160	0.306	163.7
12	A. Espargaro Aprilia Racing Team	41		Aprilia	13	+12.083 20'08.585	0.425	163.6
13	J. Zarco Team LCR	5		Honda	13	+21.119 20'17.621	9.036	162.4
14	P. Espargaro Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	44		KTM	13	+21.542 20'18.044	0.423	162.3
15	M. Oliveira Trackhouse Racing Team	88		Aprilia	13	+21.995 20'18.497	0.453	162.3
16	A. Fernandez Tech 3	37		KTM	13	+23.442 20'19.944	1.447	162.5
17	R. Fernández Trackhouse Racing Team	25		Aprilia	13	+24.280 20'20.782	0.838	162.0
18	L. Marini Repsol Honda Team	10		Honda	13	+24.747 20'21.249	0.467	161.9
19	A. Rins Yamaha Factory Racing	42		Yamaha	13	+24.873 20'21.375	0.126	161.9
20	T. Nakagami Team LCR	30		Honda	13	+25.154 20'21.656	0.281	161.8
dnf	F. Di Giannantonio Team VR46	49		Ducati	6	+7 Laps 9'42.338	7 Laps	156.7	Retirement
dnf	M. Bezzecchi Team VR46	72		Ducati	4	+9 Laps 6'15.405	2 Laps	162.1	Accident
dnf	S. Bradl HRC Test Team	6		Honda	2	+11 Laps 3'20.418	2 Laps	151.8	Retirement
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