Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia took a remarkable win over championship rival Jorge Martin to take the MotoGP Sprint victory in Misano.
Bagnaia struggled on the start for a second consecutive weekend but was able to overtake his rival Martin to take victory and cut the gap in the rider’s standings down to just four points.
There were lightning starts from Martin and the KTM of Brad Binder which saw them get the jump on Bagnaia, as Martin led the KTM and the Ducati into Turn 1.
Bagnaia and team-mate Enea Bastianini looked to respond immediately and were able to pass the KTM of Binder with the help of the GP24’s rapid straight line speed.
The Italians were looking to get back on terms with Martin out front, as reigning double world champion Bagnaia set lap record after lap record to close the gap out front to just two tenths of a second.
The pressure was piling on Martin out front and a mistake going into Turn 14 allowed Bagnaia to go through to the delight of the home crowd as the Italian started to break away out front.
Martin recovered well from his mistake, but the gap out front was just too much as Bagnaia took the chequered flag 0.285s ahead of Martin, with Bastianini rounding out the podium in third.
Marc Marquez got a good start from seventh on the grid and was able to overtake Binder to get up to fourth, but was unable to get on terms with the top three.
Pedro Acosta came home in fifth ahead of fellow KTM rider Binder in sixth.
Fabio Quartararo continued what has been a solid weekend for Yamaha, bringing it home in seventh ahead of Marco Bezzecchi and Franco Morbidelli, who were the final point scorers in eighth and ninth.
Maverick Vinales narrowly missed out on the points in 10th, leading home fellow Aprilia riders Miguel Oliveira and Aleix Espargaro, as VR46’s Fabio Di Giannantonio was 13th.
Alex Marquez was able to recover from his lowly grid position in 14th, finishing ahead of Raul Fernandez, who received a long lap penalty in the final laps of the sprint.
Jack Miller’s nightmare weekend continued as he could only bring his KTM home in 16th, ahead of the Honda trio of Luca Marini, Johann Zarco and Takaaki Nakagami.
Tech3 GasGas’ Augusto Fernandez was 20th and Joan Mir rounded out the finishers in 21st after becoming the first rider this weekend to receive a long lap penalty for track limits.
Yamaha announced earlier in the day that Alex Rins had withdrawn from the remainder of the weekend due to illness and did not take part in the Sprint.
