Race report

MotoGP Australian GP: Martin dominant in sprint, Bagnaia fourth

Pramac Ducati rider controls sprint from pole in peerless fashion after perfect start

Jorge Martin converted a dominant pole position into a crushing victory in the Australian Grand Prix sprint race on Saturday.

The world championship leader easily defeated Marc Marquez (Gresini Ducati) and Enea Bastianini (factory Ducati) after leading from lights to flag at Phillip Island.

Martin’s lead over Francesco Bagnaia grew from 10 to 16 points after the factory Ducati rider came home fourth.

Martin disappeared after an excellent start from the first grid slot, led by almost a second on lap four and three seconds on lap eight. He throttled back a little towards the end, but was always in control.

Behind him, it was an entertaining race. Marquez may have had the pace to challenge Martin, but he ran wide in the first corner after starting second. That saw him drop as low as eighth before he immediately launched a recovery ride.

He was up into second by lap eight, but by then it was too late to do anything about Martin in the 13-lap sprint. Marquez's second place was ultimately a solid one as he finished 2.8s ahead of Bastianini.

Bagnaia ran as high as second after a good getaway from the second row, but then began to struggle. He was passed in quick succession by Marco Bezzecchi (VR46 Ducati), Marquez and team-mate Bastianini.

Then Bezzecchi also began to drop off the pace, which saw him defending fourth spot from Aprilia’s front-row starter Maverick Vinales in the closing laps. At the start of lap 11, the pair were involved in a high-speed collision after Vinales had completed a move on the way into Doohan corner.

Bezzecchi was initially put on a stretcher, but was later seen on the back of a scooter as he headed to the medical centre for check-ups.

The frightening incident left team-mate Fabio di Giannantonio to salvage a fifth spot for VR46. However, di Giannantonio was later given an eight-second penalty for a front tyre pressure that was too low.

This dropped him to seventh behind countryman Franco Morbidelli (Pramac Ducati) and Raul Fernandez, who had lost ground from the second row and then had to recover.

Morbidelli was spared a last-lap fight for position when his KTM foe Brand Binder fell on the penultimate lap.

He was followed by the factory Aprilia of Aleix Espargaro, who had started way down in 20th.

Augusto Fernandez was ninth for Tech3 KTM and Luca Marini delivered Honda a top 10 after qualifying 13th, his best grid position of the season.

Alex Rins had qualified an uplifting ninth for Yamaha, but was surpassed by his team-mate Fabio Quartararo in the race. The pair finished 11th and 12th, at the back of a four-bike train led by Fernandez and Marini.

Only 15 riders finished the race, with the other fallers including local hero Jack Miller (KTM), Tech3 GasGas rider Pedro Acosta, LCR Honda's Johann Zarco and Gresini's Alex Marquez.

Acosta had failed to make substantial ground during the sprint after qualifying a lowly 15th. He then crashed three laps from home.

Trackhouse Aprilia rider Lorenzo Savadori is in some doubt for Sunday's Australian Grand Prix after a piece of debris was thrown up by another rider and hit him on the arm.

MotoGP Australian GP - Sprint results:

1 - 2
Cla	Rider	#	Bike	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Retirement	Points
1	J. Martin Pramac Racing	89	Ducati	13	-				12
2	M. Marquez Gresini Racing	93	Ducati	13	+1.520 1.520	1.520			9
3	E. Bastianini Ducati Team	23	Ducati	13	+4.368 4.368	2.848			7
4	F. Bagnaia Ducati Team	1	Ducati	13	+6.879 6.879	2.511			6
5	F. Di Giannantonio Team VR46	49	Ducati	13	+7.905 7.905	1.026			5
6	F. Morbidelli Pramac Racing	21	Ducati	13	+9.623 9.623	1.718			4
7	R. Fernández Trackhouse Racing Team	25	Aprilia	13	+15.249 15.249	5.626			3
8	A. Espargaro Aprilia Racing Team	41	Aprilia	13	+19.280 19.280	4.031			2
9	A. Fernandez Tech 3	37	KTM	13	+21.126 21.126	1.846			1
10	L. Marini Repsol Honda Team	10	Honda	13	+21.194 21.194	0.068
11	F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing	20	Yamaha	13	+21.379 21.379	0.185
12	A. Rins Yamaha Factory Racing	42	Yamaha	13	+21.483 21.483	0.104
13	J. Mir Repsol Honda Team	36	Honda	13	+23.528 23.528	2.045
14	T. Nakagami Team LCR	30	Honda	13	+34.055 34.055	10.527
15	L. Savadori Trackhouse Racing Team	32	Aprilia	13	+38.324 38.324	4.269
dnf	M. Bezzecchi Team VR46	72	Ducati	11	2 laps			Accident
dnf	M. Viñales Aprilia Racing Team	12	Aprilia	11	2 laps			Accident
dnf	B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	33	KTM	11	2 laps			Accident
dnf	P. Acosta Tech 3	31	KTM	10	3 laps			Accident
dnf	J. Miller Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	43	KTM	7	6 laps			Accident
dnf	A. Marquez Gresini Racing	73	Ducati	5	8 laps			Accident
dnf	J. Zarco Team LCR	5	Honda	4	9 laps			Accident
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