MotoGP Indian GP: Martin dominates chaotic sprint, Marquez third

Jorge Martin claimed a dominant MotoGP victory in the Indian Grand Prix sprint race, as Marc Marquez returned to the podium and the VR46 duo came to blows at the start.

Following a long delay to help dry up the starting grid, the 11-lap sprint got underway just after 5pm local time at the Buddh International Circuit, with VR46's Marco Bezzecchi starting from pole ahead of Pramac's Martin and team-mate Luca Marini.

Martin got the best launch of the trio and immediately grabbed the lead, while Bezzecchi was trying to consolidate second when his team-mate Marini got the braking wrong for the tricky Turn 1, slamming into the back of his Ducati and sending him off the track.

This gave Martin some clear air as he navigated the opening right-hander, with championship leader Francesco Bagnaia moving to second on the factory Ducati ahead of factory Honda duo Joan Mir and Marc Marquez.

Martin was already a second clear of the chasing pack by the end of lap 2, with his Pramac-run Ducati clearly quicker than the works-entered GP22 of Bagnaia.

Martin would pull out a lead of nearly three seconds by the middle part of the race but eased off on the final lap to take the chequered flag by 1.4s.

It was Martin's second consecutive sprint race win following his victory at Misano earlier this month and helps him make further inroads into Bagnaia's championship lead.

Bagnaia initially came under pressure from the Honda of Marquez, who had cleared his team-mate Mir early on, but the Spaniard couldn't keep up the pace in the second half of the race, allowing the Ducati rider to hold on to second position.

Third place nevertheless represented Marquez's second sprint podium of the year after finishing third in the first-ever sprint in Portugal.

Marquez's team-mate Mir crashed out of the race at Turn 3 on lap 4, allowing Binder to claim a respectable fourth for KTM. Binder had closed in on Marquez during the middle parts of the race, but the Honda rider was able to fend off his advances, forcing Binder to settle for fourth.

After being hit by team-mate Marini at the start and dropping to the rear of the pack, Bezzecchi pulled off a heroic comeback, getting back into the points on lap 6 and passing the lead Yamaha of Fabio Quartararo late on to grab an incredible fifth.

Behind Quartararo, Jack Miller also recovered from a poor qualifying like his team-mate Binder to claim seventh, while Aprilia's Maverick Vinales and RNF rider Raul Fernandez completed the list of points scorers in eighth and ninth respectively.

Vinales' team-mate Aleix Espargaro endured a nightmare race, dropping to 13th on the opening lap before slumping to 18th with another error. His race came to an early end when he suffered a crash at the final corner with just a few laps to run.

Pramac's Johann Zarco also couldn't finish the race after a slow crash at Turn 3, while Stefan Bradl (LCR) and Pol Espargaro (Tech3) were among the first to retire, with Bradl slamming into the back of Espargaro at the start in a crash that was nearly identical to that of the VR46 duo.

Driver Info

Cla	Rider	#	Bike	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Retirement	Points
1	J. Martin Pramac Racing	89	Ducati	11	19'18.836		171.2		12
2	F. Bagnaia Ducati Team	1	Ducati	11	+1.389	1.389	170.9		9
3	M. Marquez Repsol Honda Team	93	Honda	11	+2.405	1.016	170.8		7
4	B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	33	KTM	11	+2.904	0.499	170.7		6
5	M. Bezzecchi Team VR46	72	Ducati	11	+3.266	0.362	170.7		5
6	F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing	20	Yamaha	11	+4.327	1.061	170.5		4
7	J. Miller Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	43	KTM	11	+7.172	2.845	170.1		3
8	M. Viñales Aprilia Racing Team	12	Aprilia	11	+8.798	1.626	169.9		2
9	R. Fernández RNF Racing	25	Aprilia	11	+10.530	1.732	169.6		1
10	F. Di Giannantonio Gresini Racing	49	Ducati	11	+10.826	0.296	169.6
11	A. Fernandez Tech 3	37	KTM	11	+11.456	0.630	169.5
12	M. Oliveira RNF Racing	88	Aprilia	11	+15.415	3.959	168.9
13	T. Nakagami Team LCR	30	Honda	11	+17.437	2.022	168.6
14	M. Pirro Ducati Team	51	Ducati	11	+23.714	6.277	167.7
15	F. Morbidelli Yamaha Factory Racing	21	Yamaha	11	+36.468	12.754	165.9
dnf	A. Espargaro Aprilia Racing Team	41	Aprilia	7	+4 Laps	4 Laps	168.5	Accident
dnf	J. Zarco Pramac Racing	5	Ducati	6	+5 Laps	1 Lap	164.7	Retirement
dnf	J. Mir Repsol Honda Team	36	Honda	3	+8 Laps	3 Laps	169.8	Accident
dnf	L. Marini Team VR46	10	Ducati	0				Accident
dnf	P. Espargaro Tech 3	44	KTM	0				Accident
dnf	S. Bradl Team LCR	6	Honda	0				Accident
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