MotoGP Emilia Romagna GP: Bagnaia closes gap to Martin with sprint win

Martin nailed the start but it was Bagnaia who emerged victorious in the Misano sprint

Factory Ducati rider Francesco Bagnaia emerged on top in a thrilling duel with Jorge Martin to take victory in the sprint for MotoGP's Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

Bagnaia made a slow launch after qualifying on pole, but showed a scintillating pace to overtake Pramac rival Martin for the lead on lap 8 of 13 and score another crucial win over his title rival.

It was Bagnaia's first sprint success since the Austrian Grand Prix in August and allowed him to close within four points of Martin in the championship standings.

At the start of the race, Martin made a lightning getaway from second on the grid to grab the holeshot into Turn 1, with KTM's Brad Binder further demoting polesitter Bagnaia to third.

But Bagnaia took a little under a lap to repass Binder and then set off about Martin, who had already pulled out an advantage of more than half a second.

The gap between the two kept on fluctuating for the early stages of the races, but by lap 6 Bagnaia was right on the tail of Martin's Pramac.

The decisive move for victory came on lap 8 when, under severe pressure from Bagnaia, Martin ran a tough wide into the Turn 13 right-hander.

That allowed Bagnaia to scoop through and take the lead, with the Italian rider then smartly covering the inside line into the long Turn 14 hairpin.

Martin remained within touching distance of Bagnaia for the remainder of the race, but the two-time champion had enough to cover him, crossing the finish line with a winning margin of 0.285s.

The top two were once again in a class of their own, with third-placed Enea Bastianini slipping a second behind as he completed a podium lockout for Ducati.

Gresini's Marc Marquez jumped from seventh to fourth by the second lap as he quickly rebounded from a crash in qualifying, but lacked the pace to take the fight to the podium runners - with a mistake at Turn 13 in the closing stages forcing him to turn his attention towards the Tech3 GasGas bike of Pedro Acosta.

Acosta eventually finished as the best KTM runner in fifth ahead of Binder, who slipped down the order after making an impressive launch from fourth on the grid.

Fabio Quartararo was an impressive seventh for the resurgent Yamaha squad, which was down to one bike following team-mate Alex Rins' withdrawal due to the flu.

The final points-paying positions went to the Ducatis of VR46 rider Marco Bezzecchi and the Pramac's Franco Morbidelli.

Maverick Vinales finished as the lead Aprilia in 10th, missing a point by under three tenths of a second, while Honda's charge was led by Luca Marini in 16th.

MotoGP Emilia Romagna GP - Sprint race results

1 - 2
Cla	Rider	#	Bike	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Retirement	Points
1	F. Bagnaia Ducati Team	1	Ducati	13	-				12
2	J. Martin Pramac Racing	89	Ducati	13	+0.285 0.285	0.285			9
3	E. Bastianini Ducati Team	23	Ducati	13	+1.319 1.319	1.034			7
4	M. Marquez Gresini Racing	93	Ducati	13	+5.386 5.386	4.067			6
5	P. Acosta Tech 3	31	KTM	13	+6.580 6.580	1.194			5
6	B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	33	KTM	13	+8.143 8.143	1.563			4
7	F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing	20	Yamaha	13	+8.405 8.405	0.262			3
8	M. Bezzecchi Team VR46	72	Ducati	13	+8.965 8.965	0.560			2
9	F. Morbidelli Pramac Racing	21	Ducati	13	+9.271 9.271	0.306			1
10	M. Viñales Aprilia Racing Team	12	Aprilia	13	+9.538 9.538	0.267
11	M. Oliveira Trackhouse Racing Team	88	Aprilia	13	+11.542 11.542	2.004
12	A. Espargaro Aprilia Racing Team	41	Aprilia	13	+12.049 12.049	0.507
13	F. Di Giannantonio Team VR46	49	Ducati	13	+14.819 14.819	2.770
14	A. Marquez Gresini Racing	73	Ducati	13	+16.566 16.566	1.747
15	J. Miller Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	43	KTM	13	+19.411 19.411	2.845
16	L. Marini Repsol Honda Team	10	Honda	13	+20.101 20.101	0.690
17	J. Zarco Team LCR	5	Honda	13	+20.598 20.598	0.497
18	R. Fernández Trackhouse Racing Team	25	Aprilia	13	+20.742 20.742	0.144
19	T. Nakagami Team LCR	30	Honda	13	+25.394 25.394	4.652
20	A. Fernandez Tech 3	37	KTM	13	+25.431 25.431	0.037
21	J. Mir Repsol Honda Team	36	Honda	13	+27.208 27.208	1.777
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