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MotoGP Valencia GP: Martin keeps title hopes alive with sprint win, Bagnaia fifth

With 21 points splitting Bagnaia and Martin coming into this weekend’s finale in Valencia, the former could have won the championship in the sprint by outscoring his rival by at least four points.

But, despite leading early on, Bagnaia could only finish fifth on his factory Ducati as Martin stormed through to win and cut his points deficit down to 14 going into Sunday’s grand prix.

Martin beat KTM’s Brad Binder, while Marc Marquez completed the podium on his Honda as he gets set for his farewell with the Japanese marque on Sunday.

Having turned around his miserable Friday form in which he fell into Q1, Bagnaia launched from second on the grid on his Ducati and took the holeshot at the start.

But poleman Maverick Vinales on the Aprilia immediately struck back, taking the lead into Turn 2 as Martin moved up to third from sixth on the grid.

Martin then launched a raid on Bagnaia into Turn 11, with the latter snapping back on the exit to hold onto second.

However, this all allowed Binder to draw alongside, with the KTM rider, Marquez and Martin overtaking Bagnaia into Turn 12 to demote him to fifth.

Brad Binder, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing (Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images)

All of this squabbling allowed Vinales to steal a lead of eight tenths, but Binder quickly carved into this and made his first attempt to take the position away from the Spaniard on lap six.

Binder threw his RC16 up the inside of Vinales at Turn 4, with the Aprilia retaliating into the next corner to hold the lead.

On lap seven, Binder made the move at Turn 4 stick, while behind Marquez made contact with Martin as he tried to take third from the Pramac rider at Turn 6.

Martin moved into second at Turn 1 at the start of lap eight of 13, before Marquez took the final podium spot away from the Aprilia at Turn 6.

At Turn 11 on the same tour, Binder ran wide into Turn 11 and let Martin into a lead he wouldn’t relinquish through to the chequered flag.

Binder kept glued to the back of him, but crossed the line 0.190s adrift in second, as Marquez completed the podium.

Vinales was fourth as Bagnaia fended off Gresini’s Fabio Di Giannantonio to hold onto fifth.

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

VR46 Ducati’s Marco Bezzecchi was seventh, with Gresini’s Alex Marquez and Pramac’s Johann Zarco taking the final sprint points down to ninth.

Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo was the only non-finisher in the sprint, the Frenchman crashing at Turn 2 when he was overtaking Bagnaia on lap five.

Bagnaia needs to finish a minimum of fifth on Sunday regardless of where Martin is to win the championship.

After the sprint race Luca Marini and Franco Morbidelli were each given three-second penalties for breaking tyre pressure rules. It pushed Marini down to 17th and Morbidelli down to 18th, promoting Pol Espargaro to 14th, Enea Bastianini to 15th and Takaaki Nakagami to 16th.

MotoGP Valencia GP - sprint race results

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

-

      12
2 South Africa B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 33 KTM 13

+0.190

0.190

0.190     9
3 Spain M. Marquez Repsol Honda Team 93 Honda 13

+2.122

2.122

1.932     7
4 Spain M. Viñales Aprilia Racing Team 12 Aprilia 13

+3.106

3.106

0.984     6
5 Italy F. Bagnaia Ducati Team 1 Ducati 13

+4.253

4.253

1.147     5
6 Italy F. Di Giannantonio Gresini Racing 49 Ducati 13

+4.400

4.400

0.147     4
7 Italy M. Bezzecchi Team VR46 72 Ducati 13

+4.502

4.502

0.102     3
8 Spain A. Marquez Gresini Racing 73 Ducati 13

+5.578

5.578

1.076     2
9 France J. Zarco Pramac Racing 5 Ducati 13

+5.910

5.910

0.332     1
10 Spain A. Fernandez Tech 3 37 KTM 13

+6.095

6.095

0.185      
11 Spain R. Fernández RNF Racing 25 Aprilia 13

+7.674

7.674

1.579      
12 Australia J. Miller Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 43 KTM 13

+8.098

8.098

0.424      
13 Spain A. Espargaro Aprilia Racing Team 41 Aprilia 13

+9.513

9.513

1.415      
14 Italy L. Marini Team VR46 10 Ducati 13

+10.887

10.887

1.374      
15 Italy F. Morbidelli Yamaha Factory Racing 21 Yamaha 13

+11.943

11.943

1.056      
16 Spain P. Espargaro Tech 3 44 KTM 13

+12.453

12.453

0.510      
17 Italy E. Bastianini Ducati Team 23 Ducati 13

+12.599

12.599

0.146      
18 Japan T. Nakagami Team LCR 30 Honda 13

+13.787

13.787

1.188      
19 Spain A. Rins Team LCR 42 Honda 13

+20.378

20.378

6.591      
20 Italy L. Savadori RNF Racing 32 Aprilia 13

+25.017

25.017

4.639      
dnf France F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing 20 Yamaha 4

 

    Accident  
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