MotoGP Italian GP: Fernandez scores maiden sprint win in Aprilia 1-2

Fernandez stars in Saturday's race at Mugello, as Aprilia converts a front-row lockout into a 1-2 finish

Trackhouse’s Raul Fernandez beat factory Aprilia rider Jorge Martin in a straight fight to score his maiden sprint victory in the Italian Grand Prix.

Still fighting to secure his future in MotoGP, Fernandez grabbed the lead on the opening lap and fended off a late attack from Martin to take the top spot in the Saturday race at Mugello.

The result occurred less than a fortnight after the two riders collided in the Catalan Grand Prix, leading to a tense environment within the Aprilia camp.

Behind the two RS-GPs, Fabio di Giannantonio completed the podium positions, cementing his status as Ducati's best-performing rider.

At the start of the race, reigning champion Marquez made a brilliant launch from fourth on the grid to grab the holeshot into Turn 1, as polesitter Bezzecchi dropped down the order.

But Marquez couldn’t pull away at the front, with Fernandez making a decisive move at Turn 3 to take the lead. Fellow front-row starter Martin also made the most of the situation to barge past the Ducati rider, who slipped behind LCR’s Diogo Moreira and di Giannantonio by the end of the opening lap.

This set up a two-horse fight between Fernandez and Martin at the front, with the duo quickly pulling away from the remainder of the field, now led by di Giannantonio.

Martin managed to follow the satellite Aprilia in the opening phase, but Fernandez was able to build a buffer in the middle stages, stretching his advantage to almost a second by lap 7.

The 2024 champion started coming back at him as the race neared its conclusion, bringing the gap down to four tenths at one stage, but Fernandez’s supreme pace in the second sector on the medium rear tyre allowed him to hold firm.

The Spaniard went on to take his first win in a sprint, less than six months after his maiden grand prix success in Australia last year.

Martin eventually finished 1.2s down behind Fernandez in second, bagging a decent haul of points in his fight with Bezzecchi for the championship.

Jorge Martin, Aprilia Racing Team

Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / LAT Images / via Getty Images

Meanwhile, di Giannantonio bounced back from his worst qualifying finish of the year to put Ducati on the podium, with Bezzecchi also recovering from a poor opening lap to finish fourth.

Marquez secured a solid fifth position on his return to MotoGP, leading the Gresini Ducati of Fermin Aldeguer.

Two-time MotoGP champion Francesco Bagnaia endured a horrific start that dropped him outside the top 10, but he gradually worked his way up the order, passing KTM’s Pedro Acosta on the final lap to finish seventh.

Trackhouse’s Ai Ogura also cleared Acosta on the last tour to finish eighth, but the latter still ended up as the top KTM rider after Tech3’s Enea Bastianini crashed out at Turn 10 on lap 5.

LCR rookie Moreira suffered a significant drop in performance after his early race heroics, just missing out on points in 10th place.

Alex Rins was the top Yamaha rider in 12th, behind the factory KTM of Brad Binder.

Joan Mir (Honda) and Franco Morbidelli (VR46) joined Bastianini in the list of retirees.

SPRINT

All Stats

Cla	Rider	#	Bike	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Retirement	Points
1	R. Fernández Trackhouse Racing Team	25	Aprilia	11	19'28.408		177.7		12
2	J. Martin Aprilia Racing Team	89	Aprilia	11	+1.289 19'29.697	1.289	177.5		9
3	F. Di Giannantonio Team VR46	49	Ducati	11	+3.287 19'31.695	1.998	177.2		7
4	M. Bezzecchi Aprilia Racing Team	72	Aprilia	11	+4.481 19'32.889	1.194	177.0		6
5	M. Marquez Ducati Team	93	Ducati	11	+9.055 19'37.463	4.574	176.3		5
6	F. Aldeguer Gresini Racing	54	Ducati	11	+9.758 19'38.166	0.703	176.2		4
7	F. Bagnaia Ducati Team	63	Ducati	11	+10.983 19'39.391	1.225	176.1		3
8	A. Ogura Trackhouse Racing Team	79	Aprilia	11	+11.411 19'39.819	0.428	176.0		2
9	P. Acosta Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	37	KTM	11	+11.809 19'40.217	0.398	175.9		1
10	D. Moreira Team LCR	11	Honda	11	+12.932 19'41.340	1.123	175.8
11	B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	33	KTM	11	+16.690 19'45.098	3.758	175.2
12	A. Rins Yamaha Factory Racing	42	Yamaha	11	+17.043 19'45.451	0.353	175.2
13	L. Marini Honda HRC	10	Honda	11	+18.407 19'46.815	1.364	175.0
14	F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing	20	Yamaha	11	+20.619 19'49.027	2.212	174.6
15	M. Viñales Tech 3	12	KTM	11	+20.669 19'49.077	0.050	174.6
16	J. Miller Pramac Racing	43	Yamaha	11	+22.907 19'51.315	2.238	174.3
17	T. Razgatlioglu Pramac Racing	7	Yamaha	11	+25.423 19'53.831	2.516	173.9
18	M. Pirro Gresini Racing	51	Ducati	11	+27.085 19'55.493	1.662	173.7
19	C. Crutchlow Team LCR	35	Honda	11	+39.671 20'08.079	12.586	171.9
dnf	J. Mir Honda HRC	36	Honda	6	+5 Laps 10'53.012	5 Laps	173.4	Retirement
dnf	E. Bastianini Tech 3	23	KTM	4	+7 Laps 7'11.232	2 Laps	175.1	Accident
dnf	F. Morbidelli Team VR46	21	Ducati	4	+7 Laps 7'15.282	4.050	173.5	Accident
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