Jorge Martin produced a masterclass of pace and consistency after a stunning start to win his fifth sprint of the MotoGP season at Misano.
The Spaniard, who was fourth on the grid, increased his margin at the top of the standings by three points thanks to his defeat of Francesco Bagnaia, extending his winning run at the track where he completed the double in 2023.
Having gone three weekends without a sprint or grand prix victory, Martin said: «Finally back winning, so I am super happy.
«I think we did a good job from practice where I was struggling because we we’re trying to find perfection so it was quite difficult.
“I expected to be fighting with Pecco [Bagnaia] but I did not expect to do it from the start and at that point I thought, OK, 13 laps and I was trying not to make any mistakes and be focused and finally, I had a gap to keep for the last two laps so I was super happy.
“For tomorrow it is another sprint but I feel confident. We are in a good way.”
Bagnaia led home the second Pramac of Franco Morbidelli, who picked up his first sprint podium since the Saturday races were introduced last term. “We were hoping and waiting for this kind of performance,” he said. “Misano was the right place to do it.”
But an unhappy Bagnaia conceded: “I tried, but Jorge was braking hard. The start was a disaster, but second position after what happened last week [his crash at the Aragon GP] is OK. We’ll work to improve the start.”
Ducati’s Enea Bastianini was fourth and only two seconds away from the winner, completing a 1-2-3-4 for the Desmosedici GP24s. A spectacular late move from Gresini’s Marc Marquez clinched fifth from Tech3 GasGas’s Pedro Acosta — the 20-year-old the first non-Ducati to finish.
KTM’s Brad Binder and Jack Miller were seventh and eighth respectively, with Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo scoring a point in ninth — Gresini’s Alex Marquez almost overtook the Frenchman but had to settle for 10th.
Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales was the first among the Noale collective in 11th ahead of team-mate Aleix Espargaro. Johann Zarco was again the highest Honda racer thanks to his 13th position on the LCR machine.
Track limits warnings were issued for more than half the field across the 13-lap distance and Augusto Fernandez was the first repeat offender. The Spaniard then incorrectly filtered through the long lap section and was hit with a three-second time penalty to finish 16th.
The sprint was a torrid affair for the VR46 team with Fabio Di Giannantonio crashing at Turn 14 on the second lap and then pulling out at mid-race distance, while Marco Bezzecchi fluffed his start to drop from third on the grid to eighth and then fell through Turn 2 with nine laps to go, leaving the GP23 in fiery state.