Marc Marquez set up his first chance at the 2026 MotoGP title by winning the Qatar sprint race after a clash with Marco Bezzecchi.
Marquez impressed on the restart following a red flag for an incident involving team-mate Francesco Bagnaia, but ignited a controversial clash which saw Aprilia’s Bezzecchi crash out of second place.
On the initial race start, Bezzecchi got the launch and held onto the lead of the race at the first corner as Marquez looked unstable despite getting the holeshot and took Turn 1 in second.
Bagnaia had a fast start from the middle of the second row and immediately moved into third, looking to put his team-mate under pressure and momentarily getting through into second place.
Marquez made it back past his team-mate almost instantaneously, while Fabio Di Giannantonio also looked to respond after getting overtaken in the early part of the lap.
Bagnaia dropped back after Di Giannantonio’s overtake to sixth, behind the Trackhouse Aprilia pair who were battling amongst themselves.
Dropping back put Bagnaia in the crossfire as Fermin Aldeguer completely misjudged a move into Turn 1 on the second lap and narrowly avoided Pedro Acosta, but collided with the Ducati rider who was catapulted into the air and out of the race in a nasty highside.
The race was red flagged as the marshals recovered Bagnaia via stretcher as well as his stricken Ducati from the deep gravel trap at the first corner, which saw the riders restart for 10 laps from their original grid positions.
On the restart, Marquez got the better getaway of the riders on the front row and took the lead at the first corner from Bezzecchi and Di Giannantonio.
Jorge Martin also made a good start and moved up from 11th to fourth after pulling some aggressive overtakes on Pedro Acosta and Raul Fernandez.
Bezzecchi used the slipstream to draw level with Marquez, who ran well wide and cut back to take the racing line but made contact with the Aprilia rider.
Bezzecchi went down under the slight bit of contact at Turn 1, exiting the race to the anger of the Aprilia bosses despite the incident being deemed a racing incident.
Martin lunged at Marquez and briefly took the lead before the Ducati rider tucked back under and regained top spot.
Marquez was then able to pull away into a comfortable race lead, which left Martin struggling in second to hold off Di Giannantonio.
The VR46 rider waited until the final lap to pull the pin on Martin, getting past at Turn 2 and immediately opening a gap to the Aprilia rider.
At the front, Marquez cruised to the line comfortably to take the sprint victory and set up a chance to win the title in the grand prix.
Di Giannantonio took second after his final lap move, 0.862s behind race winner Marquez.
Martin was able to complete the race and ended up third, just 14 days after breaking his right arm in the Phillip Island sprint.
Raul Fernandez took the chequered flag in fourth, with Johann Zarco completing the top five after an intense battle.
Acosta was sixth over the line just ahead of Ogura in seventh, while Enea Bastianini had battled with both riders but finished eighth.
Iker Lecuona completed the points finishers in ninth, over a second ahead of 10th-placed Diogo Moreira.
Aldeguer was awarded a double long lap penalty for his incident with Bagnaia and finished 11th, with Brad Binder 12th and Luca Marini 13th.
Franco Morbidelli was narrowly 14th, as Maverick Vinales came home in 15th. Jake Dixon rounded out the finishers in 16th.
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