MotoGP Qatar GP: Jorge Martin Secures Crucial Victory in Sprint Race

The Qatar MotoGP sprint was won by Jorge Martin, who twice passed his title rival Francesco Bagnaia. Both riders got off to strong starts in the race, and Martin took a risk by going inside Bagnaia, which led to a slight touchas they approached turn one. From the starting line, Luca Marini took the lead, followed by Alex Marquez. Fabio Di Giannantonio, riding the slowest-starting Ducati, fell from second to sixth place. Lap two brought more action and another contact as Martin made a daring move on Bagnaia to take third position. The current world champion, meanwhile, fell to fourth place, behind Di Giannantonio. Alex Marquez tried to overtake the lead position up front, but Marini fought back fiercely to keep it.

The two fastest riders in the race, Martin and Di Giannantonio, quickly caught up to the leading pair, while Marc Marquez suffered a setback when he made contact with Brad Binder and fell from sixth to ninth. Martin made a brilliant inside move on Marini at the last corner of the fifth lap to take the lead for the first time.

Also Read: MotoGP Qatar GP: Aprilia's Aleix Espargaro Faces Grid Drop and Fine After Morbidelli Slap

MotoGP Qatar GP: Sprint Race Result

After passing Marini on lap six, Di Giannantonio attempted to pursue Martin in an attempt to win his first MotoGP race. After passing Marini, Di Giannantonio made up two-tenths on Martin in the first lap of clean air, cutting the lead to three. Martin withstood the onslaught of the Gresini rider to claim victory and draw within seven points of Bagnaia. 

Full Martinator mode!

@88jorgemartin takes his 8th #TissotSprint victory and closes the gap to ONLY 7 points! #QatarGP ???????? pic.twitter.com/WJJwkfI2Io

— MotoGP™ (@MotoGP) November 18, 2023

Bagnaia was forced to settle for a subdued performance, as the points leader was powerless to prevent Alex Marquez from closing the gap and instead had to focus on keeping Maverick Vinales, riding for Aprilia, from taking fifth place.

Brad Binder of KTM, Fabio Quartararo of Yamaha, and Augusto Fernandez of Tech3 Gas Gas took the final sprint points. Marc Marquez finished in 11th place after being pushed out of the way by Binder and then making a mistake on Turn 1. He was still, however, six places and nearly 10 seconds up on the next-best Honda rider - LCR Honda stand-in Iker Lecuona.

Also Read: MotoGP Qatar GP: VR46's Luca Marini Sets New Lap Record to Secure Pole Position

Aleix Espargaro of Aprilia, Miguel Oliveira of RNF Aprilia, and Enea Bastianini of Ducati were all eliminated from the race after being involved in a single crash on the first lap. When Oliveira entered Turn 6 too fast, he collided with Aprilia's Espargaro, whose RS-GP Bastianini was unable to avoid.