The afternoon sprint race started under sunny skies. The start went well for Alex Márquez, who looked like he could take first place. However, his brother Marc Márquez managed to move into second place as he overtook Alex at Turn 2. Fabio Quartararo had a slightly slower start, dropping to 4th. Behind him were the VR46 duo of Di Giannantonio and Morbidelli.

After the first lap, the top 10 looked as follows: Bezzecchi, Marc, Alex, Quartararo, Di Giannantonio, Morbidelli, Marini, Aldeguer, Acosta, Martín. The riders chose medium tyres at the front and hard at the rear. So far, the group remained mostly together, except for the front trio, where Marc was closing in on Bezzecchi, preparing for an overtake.

With just 3 laps completed, Jorge Martín already received a track limits warning. Looking further back, Francesco Bagnaia didn’t have a good start, dropping to 13th place. Behind the leading trio, Pedro Acosta was defending his position from Luca Marini, making for an interesting fight. On lap 5, Fabio Quartararo crashed in sector 1, making it a heartbreaking day for him after a strong qualifying and sprint performance up to that point.

Meanwhile, at the front, Bezzecchi made a mistake by running wide. Luckily for him, Marc wasn’t able to overtake immediately, but it allowed Marc to close in even more. Waiting just a little longer, on lap 6 Marc overtook Bezzecchi to take the lead. However, Marc didn’t stay in front for long, as he crashed in sector 4, bringing out a yellow flag. He had gone into Turn 15 too fast, which caused him to lose control and crash.

On lap 8, the top 10 looked as follows: Bezzecchi, Alex, Di Giannantonio, Morbidelli, Acosta, Aldeguer, Marini, Martín, Raúl Fernández, Zarco.

Meanwhile, Alex started to catch up to Bezzecchi ahead of him. However, Alex needed to be careful, as he already had a track limits warning. Elsewhere, not much was happening on the grid. Bagnaia continued to drop further down, now in 14th, while Aldeguer managed to move up to 6th.

On lap 11, Brad Binder slowly rolled into the gravel as his bike stopped working, making it a heartbreaking Saturday for him. At the same time, Morbidelli was gradually catching up to his teammate in the battle for 3rd place. Di Giannantonio made a mistake, which allowed Morbidelli to close in even more.

However, on the final lap, Acosta was fighting against Aldeguer for 5th place, making it the only notable battle in the closing stages of the race.

Marco Bezzecchi won the sprint race, with Alex Márquez in second. Di Giannantonio rounded out the podium.