The Spanish Jorge Martin led from start to finish MotoGP sprint race held on Saturday in Australia and extended his lead in the world championship of the category over Francesco Bagnaia, his great rival on the way to the title.
Marc Marquez ended in the second location and Enea Bastianini completed the podium, while the Italian Bagnaia – last year’s MotoGP champion – finished fourth, AFP reports.
Fabio di Giannantonio was fifth and Franco Morbidelli sixth in a day marred by a spectacular fall between Maverick Viñales and Marco Bezzecchi. Viñales and Bezzecchi at the end of the race had contact that ended with the two pilots on the ground. According to first reports, both pilots did not have serious injuries.
Ducati star Bagnaia won the sprint and feature race in Japan two weeks ago and reduced the gap to Pramac rider Martin to just 10 points.
But Martín took pole position in Australia for third consecutive year and on a cloudy and cool day at Phillip Island he was unstoppable to also win the sprint.
The victory increased their lead to 16 points heading into Sunday’s grand prix.
Márquez, a six-time world champion, placed third in the standings, 84 points behind Martin, along with Ducati rider Bastianini.
Martín made a perfect start, unlike Márquez, who with his Gresini went wide in the first corner and fell from second to eighth position, while Bagnaia moved up to fourth place.
Neither of them could catch up with Martín, who escaped to open a 2.6-second lead halfway through the race and cross the finish line with a 1.520-second advantage.
The race won this Sunday by Martín was the first 13-lap sprint held at Phillip Island, after the sprint was canceled last year due to adverse weather conditions.
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