Jorge Martin was consistent to secure MotoGP sprint win in Spanish GP amid mayhem from Pedro Acosta and Fabio Quartararo.
It was a solid start from KTM’s Brad Binder to lead MotoGP sprint in Spanish GP at Jerez but by the end of the lap, Pramac Ducati’s Jorge Martin snatched the lead to drop the South Africa in second, with pole-sitter Marc Marquez in third on his Gresini Ducati.
Teammate Alex Marquez was up to fourth from Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia, VR46 Ducati’s Marco Bezzecchi, Ducati’s Enea Bastianini, GASGAS Tech 3’s Pedro Acosta and VR46’s Fabio di Giannantonio in the Top 9 points positions at the start.
There was crashes for KTM’s Jack Miller and Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro separately. While Martin led the way, M Marquez started to close in on Binder and eventually took him. But the South African came back on him which allowed A Marquez to sneak though.
But M Marquez was quickly back in second from A Marquez, as Binder then had a contact with Bagnaia and Bezzecchi, where he tried an inside line but touched Bagnaia. The Italian was sent to the gravel to retire, with Binder eventually cleared of any issue.
A crash for di Giannantonio ended his race as M Marquez pressed Martin for the lead with A Marquez, Binder, Bastianini, Acosta, Bezzecchi, Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales and Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo up to ninth in the Top 9 points places.
The mayhem then ensued after M Marquez cleared Martin for the sprint lead. Post that, there were several who crashed out at the same corner at Turn 5. It was A Marquez, Binder and Bastianini going down, with the corner also collecting Vinales a lap later.
M Marquez, meanwhile, had a crash of his own from lead which allowed Martin back on top. The Spaniard rejoined in 10th and smashed into Honda’s Joan Mir, who dropped out of points. The stewards asked Marquez to drop back one place in the order.
He did so behind Trackhouse Aprilia’s Miguel Oliveira. The mayhem continued with crashes for Yamaha’s Alex Rins, Bezzecchi, Honda wildcard Stefan Bradl, Honda’s Luca Marini and LCR Honda’s Johann Zarco before the chequered flag dropped.
Martin was untouched eventually to win the MotoGP sprint in Spanish GP to extend his points tally, with Acosta in second from Quartararo who finished third after starting from 23rd on the grid. He had to defend hard from KTM wildcard Dani Pedrosa.
Pramac’s Franco Morbidelli was fifth from Trackhouse’s Raul Fernandez as Marquez recovered to seventh despite penalty, with Tech 3’s Augusto Fernandez and Oliveira rounding out the Top 9 points places, where Mir missed out.
Results: https://x.com/MotoGP/status/1784216790924476518
UPDATE: Quartararo loses sprint podium after being handed a 8s penalty due to tyre pressures, which has helped Pedrosa to secure third and a sprint podium. The Frenchman drops to fifth allowing Morbidelli to end up ahead of him in fourth.
“Dani Pedrosa promoted to P3! The Little Samurai takes his first Sprint podium after tyre pressure penalty for Quartararo,” said a small note from MotoGP, which further added: Riders must comply with the minimum pressures for 30% of laps during the Sprint or 60% of laps in any race distance over 15 laps.
A handful of riders also received eight-second penalties from the FIM MotoGP Stewards, including R Fernandez, who will drop from P6 to P12. Di Giannantonio also received an eight-second penalty but would remain in P13, as well as Miller and Rins who will remain in P14 and P15 respectable after the penalty was applied.
