Marc Marquez crashed but made the right strategy calls to prevail in the Jerez MotoGP Sprint as conditions switched from dry to wet.
The Spaniard made the controversial decision to cut across the track to the pit lane after crashing, albeit with no riders in his path.
Francesco Bagnaia and Franco Morbidelli accompanied the Spaniard on the podium to ensure a Ducati 1-2-3.
Pole sitter Marquez had an excellent getaway to take the holeshot into Turn 1, closely followed by Johann Zarco and Alex Marquez.
Crucially, championship leader Marco Bezzecchi’s wheel spun up at the start, causing him to drop down to 16th right from the off.
Aprilia’s woes continued as his team-mate Martin rose from the third row to third by the end of Lap 1. However, Marquez retook the place from the Spaniard in Turn 1, but Martin sat the bike up as the bike suffered a rare technical issue.
Marquez overtook Zarco on Lap 3 to underline the Marquez brothers’ dominance, while the Frenchman fended off Fabio Di Giannantonio for over a lap as the Gresini rider shot off a two-second gap into the distance.
The yellow flag was then waved to signal that riders could change bikes if they so wished, as the conditions saw spots of rain occur in the first third of the race.
The Marquez brothers out front similarly dominated proceedings to much of the 2025 season, with younger brother Alex waiting for the perfect opportunity to pounce.
Marquez was holding up the field dramatically as Fabio Di Giannantonio clawed in over a second in one lap on Lap 6, evidently trying to test the track limits in the mixed and interchangeable conditions.
After two laps of biding his time, Alex overtook Marc into Turn 7, but whether he would stretch a gap in those tricky conditions remained to be seen.
The rainfall increased drastically, which saw Toprak Razgatlıoğlu and Lorenzo Savadori crash out.
Later that same lap at Jorge Lorenzo corner, Marc crashed out before mounting back on and joining the pits with a plethora of riders.
The younger Marquez brother stayed out and gambled, which ultimately failed as he also crashed out and was unable to rejoin the track.
While everyone bar Fermin Aldeguer pitted for wets, championship contenders Bezzecchi and Pedro Acosta both crashed out too.
Aldeguer eventually pitted, especially when the factory Ducati duo of Marquez and Francesco Bagnaia showed their superior pace on wets.
Marquez maintained his dominance in Jerez as he wrapped up his second Sprint race win of the year.
Bagnaia finished in second once again, ensuring a factory Ducati 1-2, finishing 1.5s behind the reigning MotoGP champion.
VR46 Ducati rider Morbidelli secured a much-needed podium after an extremely challenging 2026 campaign for the Italian.
Brad Binder produced the goods to finish fourth for KTM, showing yet another reason why he’s one of the best in interchangeable conditions.
Di Giannantonio finished in a respectable fifth after starting in third position, followed by lead Aprilia rider Raul Fernandez.
Fabio Quartararo claimed seventh spot for Yamaha, followed by Honda representatives Zarco and Luca Marini.
Alex Rins rounded off the top 10 positions, finishing just ahead of Tech3’s Enea Bastianini and Acosta.
Yamaha test rider Augusto Fernandez claimed 13th spot, followed by Diogo Moreira and Ai Ogura.
Jack Miller and Fermin Aldeguer finished in 16th and 17th, ending the Spanish Sprint race as the final two classified riders.
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