Truly everything happened in the Jerez de la Frontera Sprint, although one great constant remained with those of the past: Jorge Martin's ability to capitalize in the short races on Saturday, achieving his second success of the season and giving an important breakthrough in the standings, given that all the main rivals remained empty or almost empty.
The Prima Pramac Racing standard bearer is one of the few who managed to stay out of trouble on a track that was now dry, but still had several wet patches that left many to pay the price: in fact, there were 15 crashes per due to the damp patches left on the asphalt after the rain that fell in the morning.
The Madrilenian put himself in the right conditions straight away, because he took second position behind Brad Binder's KTM, who got off to a great start from the second row. In the space of a couple of laps, however, he gained the lead and also tried to open a small gap, taking advantage of the confusion that the South African created behind him.
To respond to the overtaking of poleman Marc Marquez, he sent both long men into the last corner and behind him Pecco Bagnaia and Marco Bezzecchi also took advantage of the opportunity to slip in. The KTM standard bearer, however, didn't want to give up and at the first braking point of the following lap he launched himself back inside, giving a blow to the reigning world champion, who ended up spinning after being pushed against the another Ducati from Pertamina Enduro VR46.
A hard blow for the Ducati rider, who innocently found himself in a sandwich and has to deal with another zero, gained after just two laps, and probably with anger at the fact that the Race Direction decided not to take action towards Binder.
After half the race, Martin seemed to have the victory in his grasp, but he hadn't taken into account a Marquez determined to change pace to catch him, but above all with a huge thrill during the seventh lap, when the front of the his Ducati at turn 7. At that point the #93 found himself in the exhaust, who successfully tried to overtake at turn 9, immediately taking a slight margin.
The lap that changed the race, however, was the ninth, in which truly everything happened: almost as if it were a dance, Alex Marquez, Binder, and Enea Bastianini, who occupied the positions between third and fifth, ended up all on the ground at turn 5, probably passing over a damp patch. Third position then passed into the hands of Bezzecchi, who however in turn said goodbye to the group at turn 7.
The biggest twist, however, came at turn 10, when it was Marc Marquez who ended up with his wheels in the air, serving the victory on a silver platter to Martin, who at this point only had to make sure to stay out of trouble , given that behind him were Pedro Acosta and Maverick Vinales, who however were very late having moved up from the fourth row.
But it didn't end there because the Aprilia rider also paid the price for the damp patch at turn 5 a lap later, ending his race in the gravel of the escape route. While Acosta held out until the end, achieving a second place which was his first podium in a Sprint, today's biggest surprise materialized behind him.
In fact, Fabio Quartararo climbed to the lowest step of the podium, having even moved up from 23rd place on the grid with his Yamaha. “El Diablo” saw his great start rewarded and then did well to resist the return of wild card Dani Pedrosa, who stopped at the foot of the podium just like last year in Misano with his KTM.
Top 5 also for Franco Morbidelli, who also took advantage of the fall of Johann Zarco's Honda at the last corner. The only one among those mentioned to have managed to continue after the fall was Marc Marquez, who then managed to finish seventh after being forced to give up a position to Raul Fernandez. In this case, however, he paid for an over-the-top contact that occurred previously with Joan Mir. Also scoring points are Augusto Fernandez and Miguel Oliveira, while there is another zero for Fabio Di Giannantonio, also on the list of drivers who crashed, although he then restarted.
With today's results, as mentioned, Martin takes off because he now has a 29 point margin over his direct pursuer, who is an amazing Acosta. Third is Bastianini at -33, with Vinales at -36 and Bagnaia at -42.
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