MotoGP Aragon GP: Marquez takes dominant sprint win, disaster for Bagnaia

MotorLand delivers a first ever sprint win for Marquez while a disastrous outing for world champion Bagnaia sees Martin rise to the peak of the world championship

Marc Marquez broke his 1000-day victory drought with top spot in Saturday's sprint race at the Aragon Grand Prix.

The 31-year-old Catalan, who had topped every single session at MotoLand, controlled the race from the opening corners to convert pole position into a dominant 2.9s win.

It was the former Honda rider's first victory in more than 1000 days, stretching back to Misano in 2021, and first-ever in the new sprint format.

Gresini rider Marquez, who is also the ninth different rider to triumph on a Saturday since the introduction of the concept in 2023, said: "I feel super good. It was a very good weekend until now but the race always is the race and you cannot do any mistakes.

"I started a little bit stiff on the front lap, but then we started to ride in a better way and we controlled the race but of course, the most important day is tomorrow.

"So today we celebrate, because it's a sprint Race, but it's really important for us - the first victory in the sprint and I am, looking forward for tomorrow, in front of these amazing people."

Jorge Martin rode to a solitary second place with Tech3's Pedro Acosta another 3.7 seconds adrift completing an all-Spanish podium.

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Martin's comfortable runner-up slot allowed the Pramac man to leapfrog main title rival and world champion Francesco Bagnaia in the standings and convert a five-point deficit to a three-point advantage.

The Italian suffered wheelspin from third on the grid and clearly had a grip issue throughout the race as he buffeted back to ninth and the last points-scoring berth, behind the impessive Fabio Quartararo on the Yamaha.

Alex Marquez rode to fourth for what was a solid day of results for the Gresini team and Miguel Oliveira's fifth-place finish on the Trackhouse Racing Aprilia was the Portuguese's second-highest sprint result of the campaign.

KTM's Brad Binder was one of the flock of riders that profited from Bagnaia's issues and took sixth ahead of a resurgent Enea Bastianini, who sailed from 14th on the grid to seventh after a poor Q1 outing this morning on the other factory Ducati.

Aprilia's Aleix Espargaro was a victim of the slick grid tarmac and his poor launch was compounded further as he fell into Turn 1 after touching the rear wheel of Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46).

Other fallers were Honda's principal hope, LCR rider Johann Zarco, and Pramac's Franco Morbidelli.

MotoGP Aragon GP - Sprint race results:

1 - 2
Cla	Rider	#	Bike	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Retirement	Points
1	M. Marquez Gresini Racing	93	Ducati	11	19'50.034		168.9		12
2	J. Martin Pramac Racing	89	Ducati	11	+2.961 19'52.995	2.961	168.5		9
3	P. Acosta Tech 3	31	KTM	11	+6.694 19'56.728	3.733	167.9		7
4	A. Marquez Gresini Racing	73	Ducati	11	+9.950 19'59.984	3.256	167.5		6
5	M. Oliveira Trackhouse Racing Team	88	Aprilia	11	+11.749 20'01.783	1.799	167.2		5
6	B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	33	KTM	11	+14.144 20'04.178	2.395	166.9		4
7	E. Bastianini Ducati Team	23	Ducati	11	+14.291 20'04.325	0.147	166.9		3
8	F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing	20	Yamaha	11	+18.836 20'08.870	4.545	166.3		2
9	F. Bagnaia Ducati Team	1	Ducati	11	+20.298 20'10.332	1.462	166.1		1
10	M. Bezzecchi Team VR46	72	Ducati	11	+20.448 20'10.482	0.150	166.0
11	R. Fernández Trackhouse Racing Team	25	Aprilia	11	+20.678 20'10.712	0.230	166.0
12	A. Fernandez Tech 3	37	KTM	11	+21.429 20'11.463	0.751	165.9
13	J. Miller Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	43	KTM	11	+22.110 20'12.144	0.681	165.8
14	T. Nakagami Team LCR	30	Honda	11	+22.440 20'12.474	0.330	165.8
15	F. Di Giannantonio Team VR46	49	Ducati	11	+23.468 20'13.502	1.028	165.6
16	L. Marini Repsol Honda Team	10	Honda	11	+26.822 20'16.856	3.354	165.2
17	A. Rins Yamaha Factory Racing	42	Yamaha	11	+26.910 20'16.944	0.088	165.2
18	J. Mir Repsol Honda Team	36	Honda	11	+31.147 20'21.181	4.237	164.6
19	M. Viñales Aprilia Racing Team	12	Aprilia	11	+37.642 20'27.676	6.495	163.7
dnf	F. Morbidelli Pramac Racing	21	Ducati	4	+7 Laps 13'50.672	7 Laps	88.0	Retirement
dnf	J. Zarco Team LCR	5	Honda	1	+10 Laps 4'32.732	3 Laps	67.0	Retirement
dnf	A. Espargaro Aprilia Racing Team	41	Aprilia	0	11 laps			Accident
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