Bagnaia Retains Crown

Jorge Martin kept his title hopes up until the very end with yet another victory in the Sprint, but faltered in the main race as “Pecco” Bagnaia retained his crown in style with a victory

- Azaman Chothia

Sprint

MAVERICK VIÑALES (APRILIA Racing) qualified on pole with an all-time lap record for the start of the race. Starting in P2 and P3 were Francesco “Pecco” Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) and Johann Zarco (Prima Pramac Racing) respectively.

At the start, Bagnaia got a great launch from P2, grabbed the holeshot into Turn One, and Martin got away well from P6. Viñales snapped back on Bagnaia with a late lunge at Turn Two. On the first lap, Martin made his move on Pecco at Turn 11. Binder managed to squeeze up the inside of the pair of them and headed into Turn 12 and so did Marc Márquez (Repsol Honda Team). Suddenly, Bagnaia went from P2 to P5. Martin soon got back past Márquez and Bagnaia was dropping to the group behind that was being led by Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha). With nine laps to go, Quartararo’s Sprint Race came to an end as he attempted to overtake Pecco at Turn Six and crashed out while doing so.

Up front, Viñales, Binder (RedBull KTM), Martin, and Marc Márquez were glued together. At this stage, Bagnaia was 1.6 seconds away from the fight and had Marco Bezzecchi (Mooney VR46 Racing Team) and Fabio Di Giannantonio (Gresini Racing) for company. Binder was leading with seven laps to go. Márquez tried to make a move on Martin at Turn Six and they made slight contact. Martin then carved his way past Viñales to get into P2 at Turn One with six laps to go.