MotoGP San Marino GP: Marco Bezzecchi wins sprint race…

Marco Bezzecchi scored his first MotoGP sprint victory as an Aprilia rider in the San Marino Grand Prix after Marc Marquez crashed out shortly after taking the lead.

Bezzecchi and Marquez duelled for the top spot in the half-distance race at Misano, with the latter taking the lead at the start of lap six of 13. But on the very same lap, he made a rare error and let go of his Ducati, handing Bezzecchi a lead he wouldn’t relinquish.

At the start of the race, Alex Marquez got the best launch from the middle of the front row, but polesitter Bezzecchi swept past him into Turn 1 to hold on to the lead.

Marc Marquez then went around the outside of his younger brother to snatch second into Turn 2, having already leapfogged the Yamaha of Fabio Quartararo.

The six-time world champion then set about chasing Bezzecchi, who initially did enough to manage the gap at the front. However, on lap five, the Aprilia rider ran wide at Turn 14, bringing the world championship leader back into play.

Marquez wasted little time to make a move, sending his factory Ducati up the inside at Turn 6 to hit the front for the first time. But, on the very same lap, he threw it all away, losing the front end of his bike into Turn 15 and crashing out of the sprint.

It was the Spaniard’s first high-profile crash in any format since the Spanish Grand Prix in April, and ended his streak of eight consecutive sprint victories.

Marco Bezzecchi, Aprilia Racing, Marc Marquez, Ducati Team (Photo by: Andreas Solaro / AFP via Getty Images)

With Marquez out, Bezzecchi retook the lead of the race, with Alex Marquez moving back into second on the lead Gresini GP24. The two continued to race in close formation for the next few laps, keeping the fight open, but Bezzecchi steadily increased the gap to over a second with three laps to go.

The younger Marquez mounted a late attack to bring the deficit down to six tenths, but Bezzecchi picked up the pace again to clinch his second career sprint win. This marked the first time a non-Ducati rider won a sprint since last year’s Catalan GP in May 2024, when Aleix Espargaro took the top spot for Aprilia.

Behind Alex Marquez in second, VR46’s Fabio di Giannantonio crossed the finish line in third to score back-to-back sprint podiums. Franco Morbidelli finished right behind his team-mate in fourth, while Pedro Acosta finished a solid fifth for KTM after crashing in qualifying.

Gresini’s Fermin Aldeguer rose from 10th on the grid to finish sixth, leading the top Honda of Luca Marini and the second factory Aprilia of reigning champion Jorge Martin. The final points-scoring position went to Trackhouse Racing’s Raul Fernandez in ninth.

Two-time MotoGP champion Francesco Bagnaia endured another sprint race to forget on the factory Ducati, slipping from eighth to 13th. The Italian made a poor start and dropped outside the top 10 by the end of lap two, before slipping further down the order.

Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo retired from the race after crashing out from fourth place on lap five, while Augusto Fernandez brought the V4-powered M1 home in 18th.

San Marino GP - Sprint results:

1 - 2
Cla	Rider	#	Bike	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Retirement	Points
1	M. Bezzecchi Aprilia Racing Team	72	Aprilia	13	19'52.966				12
2	A. Marquez Gresini Racing	73	Ducati	13	+1.000 19'53.966	1.000			9
3	F. Di Giannantonio Team VR46	49	Ducati	13	+2.551 19'55.517	1.551			7
4	F. Morbidelli Team VR46	21	Ducati	13	+3.526 19'56.492	0.975			6
5	P. Acosta Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	37	KTM	13	+6.834 19'59.800	3.308			5
6	F. Aldeguer Gresini Racing	54	Ducati	13	+6.960 19'59.926	0.126			4
7	L. Marini Honda HRC	10	Honda	13	+9.307 20'02.273	2.347			3
8	J. Martin Aprilia Racing Team	1	Aprilia	13	+11.027 20'03.993	1.720			2
9	R. Fernández Trackhouse Racing Team	25	Aprilia	13	+11.594 20'04.560	0.567			1
10	E. Bastianini Tech 3	23	KTM	13	+12.928 20'05.894	1.334
11	J. Zarco Team LCR	5	Honda	13	+15.490 20'08.456	2.562
12	A. Ogura Trackhouse Racing Team	79	Aprilia	13	+15.600 20'08.566	0.110
13	F. Bagnaia Ducati Team	63	Ducati	13	+16.129 20'09.095	0.529
14	J. Miller Pramac Racing	43	Yamaha	13	+16.727 20'09.693	0.598
15	M. Viñales Tech 3	12	KTM	13	+16.861 20'09.827	0.134
16	M. Oliveira Pramac Racing	88	Yamaha	13	+17.576 20'10.542	0.715
17	A. Rins Yamaha Factory Racing	42	Yamaha	13	+18.716 20'11.682	1.140
18	A. Fernandez Yamaha Factory Racing	7	Yamaha	13	+27.893 20'20.859	9.177
19	S. Chantra Team LCR	35	Honda	13	+28.333 20'21.299	0.440
dnf	B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	33	KTM	9	+4 Laps 15'02.196	4 Laps		Retirement
dnf	M. Marquez Ducati Team	93	Ducati	5	+8 Laps 9'00.106	4 Laps		Retirement
dnf	F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing	20	Yamaha	5	+8 Laps 10'06.169	1'06.063		Retirement
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