MotoGP Valencia GP: Martin keeps title hopes alive with sprint win, Bagnaia fifth

Pramac’s Jorge Martin has kept his 2023 MotoGP title hopes alive with a vital ninth sprint victory of the year at the Valencia Grand Prix, with Francesco Bagnaia only fifth.

With 21 points splitting Bagnaia and Martin coming into this weekend’s finale in Valencia, the former could have won the championship in the sprint by outscoring his rival by at least four points.

But, despite leading early on, Bagnaia could only finish fifth on his factory Ducati as Martin stormed through to win and cut his points deficit down to 14 going into Sunday’s grand prix.

Martin beat KTM’s Brad Binder, while Marc Marquez completed the podium on his Honda as he gets set for his farewell with the Japanese marque on Sunday.

Having turned around his miserable Friday form in which he fell into Q1, Bagnaia launched from second on the grid on his Ducati and took the holeshot at the start.

But poleman Maverick Vinales on the Aprilia immediately struck back, taking the lead into Turn 2 as Martin moved up to third from sixth on the grid.

Martin then launched a raid on Bagnaia into Turn 11, with the latter snapping back on the exit to hold onto second.

However, this all allowed Binder to draw alongside, with the KTM rider, Marquez and Martin overtaking Bagnaia into Turn 12 to demote him to fifth.

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Brad Binder, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing

All of this squabbling allowed Vinales to steal a lead of eight tenths, but Binder quickly carved into this and made his first attempt to take the position away from the Spaniard on lap six.

Binder threw his RC16 up the inside of Vinales at Turn 4, with the Aprilia retaliating into the next corner to hold the lead.

On lap seven, Binder made the move at Turn 4 stick, while behind Marquez made contact with Martin as he tried to take third from the Pramac rider at Turn 6.

Martin moved into second at Turn 1 at the start of lap eight of 13, before Marquez took the final podium spot away from the Aprilia at Turn 6.

At Turn 11 on the same tour, Binder ran wide into Turn 11 and let Martin into a lead he wouldn’t relinquish through to the chequered flag.

Binder kept glued to the back of him, but crossed the line 0.190s adrift in second, as Marquez completed the podium.

Vinales was fourth as Bagnaia fended off Gresini’s Fabio Di Giannantonio to hold onto fifth.

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team

VR46 Ducati’s Marco Bezzecchi was seventh, with Gresini’s Alex Marquez and Pramac’s Johann Zarco taking the final sprint points down to ninth.

Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo was the only non-finisher in the sprint, the Frenchman crashing at Turn 2 when he was overtaking Bagnaia on lap five.

Bagnaia needs to finish a minimum of fifth on Sunday regardless of where Martin is to win the championship.

After the sprint race Luca Marini and Franco Morbidelli were each given three-second penalties for breaking tyre pressure rules. It pushed Marini down to 17th and Morbidelli down to 18th, promoting Pol Espargaro to 14th, Enea Bastianini to 15th and Takaaki Nakagami to 16th.

MotoGP Valencia GP - sprint race results

Driver Info

Cla	Rider	#	Bike	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Retirement	Points
1	J. Martin Pramac Racing	89	Ducati	13	-				12
2	B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	33	KTM	13	+0.190 0.190	0.190			9
3	M. Marquez Repsol Honda Team	93	Honda	13	+2.122 2.122	1.932			7
4	M. Viñales Aprilia Racing Team	12	Aprilia	13	+3.106 3.106	0.984			6
5	F. Bagnaia Ducati Team	1	Ducati	13	+4.253 4.253	1.147			5
6	F. Di Giannantonio Gresini Racing	49	Ducati	13	+4.400 4.400	0.147			4
7	M. Bezzecchi Team VR46	72	Ducati	13	+4.502 4.502	0.102			3
8	A. Marquez Gresini Racing	73	Ducati	13	+5.578 5.578	1.076			2
9	J. Zarco Pramac Racing	5	Ducati	13	+5.910 5.910	0.332			1
10	A. Fernandez Tech 3	37	KTM	13	+6.095 6.095	0.185
11	R. Fernández RNF Racing	25	Aprilia	13	+7.674 7.674	1.579
12	J. Miller Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	43	KTM	13	+8.098 8.098	0.424
13	A. Espargaro Aprilia Racing Team	41	Aprilia	13	+9.513 9.513	1.415
14	L. Marini Team VR46	10	Ducati	13	+10.887 10.887	1.374
15	F. Morbidelli Yamaha Factory Racing	21	Yamaha	13	+11.943 11.943	1.056
16	P. Espargaro Tech 3	44	KTM	13	+12.453 12.453	0.510
17	E. Bastianini Ducati Team	23	Ducati	13	+12.599 12.599	0.146
18	T. Nakagami Team LCR	30	Honda	13	+13.787 13.787	1.188
19	A. Rins Team LCR	42	Honda	13	+20.378 20.378	6.591
20	L. Savadori RNF Racing	32	Aprilia	13	+25.017 25.017	4.639
dnf	F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing	20	Yamaha	4				Accident
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