Emilia Romagna MotoGP: Bagnaia holds off Martin in tense sprint
Championship lead shrinks after mistake gives Bagnaia Misano sprint revenge
Francesco Bagnaia converted pole to victory in the MotoGP Emilia Romagna Grand Prix sprint after fending off Jorge Martin to bring the championship lead down to four points.
Having been beaten by Martin in the sprint at Misano two weeks ago, Bagnaia capitalised on a late mistake by the Pramac rider to take the lead on lap eight of 13.
Once in the lead, Bagnaia wasn’t headed again by Martin and fended off the championship leader by just 0.285 seconds at the chequered flag.
It has brought Martin’s championship lead down to just four points ahead of Sunday’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
Enea Bastianini completed the top three on the sister factory team Ducati, with Marc Marquez a distant fourth on his Gresini Ducati after coming from seventh on the grid.
In a repeat of the San Marino GP sprint, Bagnaia didn’t get off the line from pole as well as Martin and found the Pramac rider jumping into the lead at Turn 1.
Making matters worse, KTM’s Brad Binder from fourth managed to take second from Bagnaia into Turn 1 too.
Bagnaia was able to quickly dispatch with Binder on the run down to Turn 8, with Bastianini following suit on the KTM rider.
Regrouping over lap two, Bagnaia brought Martin’s lead down by a few tenths, with the pair split by 0.5s at the start of the fourth tour.
Despite being able to close in on Martin through the last part of the lap, Bagnaia couldn’t find a way through and almost threw his Ducati down the road when he had a front moment on the kerb at Turn 5 on lap seven.
It didn’t affect him too much as he quickly got back onto Martin’s tail, but it wouldn’t be until a mistake at Turn 13 for the Pramac rider next time around that Bagnaia could find a way through.
Martin ran wide through Turn 13 and opened the door for Bagnaia to carve past, with the world champion defending his track position into Turn 14.
Despite Martin - who was hit with a late track limits warning - keeping the pressure on in the final laps, he could do nothing to stop Bagnaia winning his fourth sprint of the season.
Bastianini had strong pace late in the sprint, but couldn’t catch the leaders as he settled for third, while Marquez was a distant fourth ahead of Tech3’s Pedro Acosta.
After his blistering start, Binder quickly fell down the order and was sixth in the end ahead of Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo.
The final points in the sprint went to VR46 Ducati rider Marco Bezzecchi and Pramac’s Franco Morbidelli.
Maverick Vinales was the first of the Aprilia’s in 10th, while top Honda honours went to Luca Marini in 16th.
There were no retirements in the sprint, though long lap penalties were handed out to Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse Aprilia) and Joan Mir (Honda) for repeatedly exceeding track limits.
