2024 Australian MotoGP: Martin beats Marquez in sprint, scary crash for Vinales and Bezzecchi
Martin grows championship lead with dominant sprint win at Phillip Island
Jorge Martin extended his MotoGP championship lead after dominating the Australian Grand Prix sprint from Marc Marquez, while Francesco Bagnaia was a distant fourth.
Having crushed the field to claim pole in qualifying earlier on Saturday, Martin converted that into an important first sprint victory since the San Marino GP.
Martin led every lap and was at one stage over three seconds clear at the front, with the Pramac rider easing off late on to still head Marc Marquez by 1.520 seconds.
Marquez recovered from running wide at Turn 1 on the first lap and dropping to eighth to charge through to second, while Enea Bastianini inflicted pain on his factory Ducati team-mate Bagnaia by taking third from him on lap eight of 13.
Fourth for Bagnaia sees his championship deficit to Martin grow from 10 points to 16 ahead of Sunday’s 27-lap grand prix.
Bagnaia was dealt some respite in fourth as the charging Maverick Vinales and Marco Bezzecchi behind him were involved in a scary tangle at Turn 1 on lap 12.
Vinales blasted past Bezzecchi on the run down into Turn 1, but the VR46 rider couldn’t get his Ducati stopped and slammed into the back of the Aprilia.
Bezzecchi had to be helped off track on a stretcher, but was soon able to get onto the back of a scooter to get back to the paddock. The incident is under investigation.
Martin held onto pole off the line at the start of the 13-lap sprint, while Marquez plummeted to eighth from second after running wide into Turn 1.
By the end of the first lap, Martin was 0.8s clear of the field and this set the tone for the rest of the race as the Pramac rider continued to ease away.
And this was despite having the threat of a long lap penalty hanging over him after he was given a track limits warning on lap three.
By the start of lap four, Bagnaia had gotten up to second having come from fifth on the grid but couldn’t do anything to bring down Martin’s lead.
Behind, Marquez was charging his way back up from eighth, with the eight-time world champion getting into the podium places on lap six ahead of Bezzecchi.
Marquez quickly got onto the back of Bagnaia and took second from his future team-mate at Turn 4 on lap eight, while Bastianini came through into third at Turn 10.
Both quickly dropped the world champion, while Martin’s lead stood at 3.1s at the start of lap nine.
Marquez was able to close in on Martin, though the Pramac rider controlled his pace in the final laps to secure his sixth sprint win of 2024.
Bagnaia ended up 2.511s behind team-mate Bastianini in fourth, while VR46’s Fabio Di Giannantonio was fifth. However, he is under investigation for a potential tyre pressure infringement.
Franco Morbidelli was sixth on the sister Pramac Ducati ahead of Trackhouse Aprilia’s Raul Fernandez, while factory Aprilia counterpart Aleix Espargaro and Tech3 GASGAS rider Augusto Fernandez took the final point in ninth.
Fernandez’s first sprint points since France came in a crash-strewn sprint that saw the rest of the KTM stable fall, with Gresini’s Alex Marquez and Johann Zarco (LCR Honda) also taking tumbles.
