Photo: Gresini Racing
Alex Marquez takes Sprint victory after close battles with Pedro Acosta
The Sprint race took place under ideal and sunny weather conditions with the drivers choosing soft rear tires and medium front ones. There were multiple crashes mainly at the beginning of the session with Mir and Binder crashing in lap 1 and Martin’s crash in lap 3.
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Acosta, who started on pole position, had a really good start with Alex Marquez close behind, but Acosta managed to keep the lead. At the end of the first lap Zarco overtook Marquez and took the second position back.
On lap 2, Marquez used slipstream and attacked Acosta on the main straight. In the next lap Martin crashed and caused a yellow flag in Sector 4.
On lap 4, Marquez used slipstream again and made a good overtake on Acosta on the main straight taking the first place. In this lap Marquez also received a warning about exceeding track limits, but there was no action about it further in the race.
On lap 5, Fernandez overtook Acosta and climbed to the second place with 0.3 second gap to leading Marquez but the gap got bigger within next laps.
On lap 7 Bastianini and Marini battled for the 10th position and it was Bastianini who won this battle. Viñales had to retire his motorcycle probably due to technical issues and therefore he went into boxes.
With 5 laps to go, there was a battle for the sixth place between Bezzecchi and Bangnaia and it was Bangnaia who won and took the place.
Lap later, Acosta managed to get back behind Marquez overtaking Fernandez and on the next lap he also overtook Marquez and took the lead. With two laps to go Marquez took the lead back and these riders kept battling for the win for the rest of the race.
In this tight battle Marquez won and took the chequered flag first with Acosta and Di Giannantonio behind.
Sprint race results:
1st – Alex Marquez (Gresini Racing)
2nd – Pedro Acosta (KTM Factory Racing) – +0.041
3rd – Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46 Racing Team) – +0.457
4th – Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse MotoGP Team) – +2.928
5th – Johann Zarco (Honda LCR) – +4.764
6th – Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) – +4.894
7th – Franco Morbidelli (VR46 Racing Team) – +6.175
8th – Ai Ogura (Trackhouse MotoGP Team) – +6.871
9th – Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia Racing) – +7.381
10th – Enea Bastianini (KTM Tech3) – +7.869
11th – Luca Marini (Honda HRC Castrol) – +8.343
12th – Fermin Aldeguer (Gresini Racing) – +9.721
13th – Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha MotoGP Team) – +10.042
14th – Diogo Moreira (Honda LCR) – +14.096
15th – Alex Rins (Yamaha MotoGP Team) – +14.166
16th – Jack Miller (Pramac Yamaha MotoGP) – +14.334
17th – Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pramac Yamaha MotoGP) – +20.452
18th – Augusto Fernandez (Yamaha Factory Racing) – +20.558
19th – Maverick Viñales (KTM Tech3) – DNF (+6 Laps)
20th – Jorge Martin (Aprilia Racing) – DNF (+2 Laps)
21st – Brad Binder (KTM Factory Racing) – DNF
22nd – Joan Mir (Honda HRC Castrol) – DNF
