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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.”

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

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 Marc Marquez clinched fifth from Tech 3 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 Viñales 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

   
1
 - 
5
   
   
1
 - 
2
   
Cla Rider # Bike Laps Time Interval km/h Retirement Points
1 Spain J. Martin Pramac Racing 89 Ducati 13

19'56.502

  165.2   12
2 Italy F. Bagnaia Ducati Team 1 Ducati 13

+1.495

19'57.997

1.495 165.0   9
3 Italy F. Morbidelli Pramac Racing 21 Ducati 13

+1.832

19'58.334

0.337 165.0   7
4 Italy E. Bastianini Ducati Team 23 Ducati 13

+2.041

19'58.543

0.209 165.0   6
5 Spain M. Marquez Gresini Racing 93 Ducati 13

+6.469

20'02.971

4.428 164.4   5
6 Spain P. Acosta Tech 3 31 KTM 13

+6.796

20'03.298

0.327 164.3   4
7 South Africa B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 33 KTM 13

+9.979

20'06.481

3.183 163.9   3
8 Australia J. Miller Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 43 KTM 13

+10.726

20'07.228

0.747 163.8   2
9 France F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing 20 Yamaha 13

+11.015

20'07.517

0.289 163.7   1
10 Spain A. Marquez Gresini Racing 73 Ducati 13

+11.352

20'07.854

0.337 163.7    
11 Spain M. Viñales Aprilia Racing Team 12 Aprilia 13

+11.658

20'08.160

0.306 163.7    
12 Spain A. Espargaro Aprilia Racing Team 41 Aprilia 13

+12.083

20'08.585

0.425 163.6    
13 France J. Zarco Team LCR 5 Honda 13

+21.119

20'17.621

9.036 162.4    
14 Spain P. Espargaro Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 44 KTM 13

+21.542

20'18.044

0.423 162.3    
15 Portugal M. Oliveira Trackhouse Racing Team 88 Aprilia 13

+21.995

20'18.497

0.453 162.3    
16 Spain A. Fernandez Tech 3 37 KTM 13

+23.442

20'19.944

1.447 162.5    
17 Spain R. Fernández Trackhouse Racing Team 25 Aprilia 13

+24.280

20'20.782

0.838 162.0    
18 Italy L. Marini Repsol Honda Team 10 Honda 13

+24.747

20'21.249

0.467 161.9    
19 Spain A. Rins Yamaha Factory Racing 42 Yamaha 13

+24.873

20'21.375

0.126 161.9    
20 Japan T. Nakagami Team LCR 30 Honda 13

+25.154

20'21.656

0.281 161.8    
dnf Italy F. Di Giannantonio Team VR46 49 Ducati 6

+7 Laps

9'42.338

7 Laps 156.7 Retirement  
dnf Italy M. Bezzecchi Team VR46 72 Ducati 4

+9 Laps

6'15.405

2 Laps 162.1 Accident  
dnf Germany S. Bradl HRC Test Team 6 Honda 2

+11 Laps

3'20.418

2 Laps 151.8 Retirement  
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