Emilia Romagna MotoGP: Bagnaia holds off Martin in tense sprint
Championship lead shrinks after mistake gives Bagnaia Misano spri🍌nt reve𒀰nge
Francesco Bagnaia converted pole to victory in the MotoGP Emilia Romagna Grand Prix sprint after fending off Jorge Martin to b🉐ring 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 l☂ap eight of 13.
Once in the l⛦ead, Bagnaia wasn’t headed again by Marti💧n and fended off the championship leader by just 0.285 seconds at the chequered flag.
It has b𒁏rought Martin’s championship lead down to just four points ahead of Sunday’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
Enea Bastianini comp꧑leted the top three on the sister factory team Ducati, with Marc Marquez a distant fourth on his Gresini Ducati after coming from seventh oᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚn the grid.
In a repeat of🐲 the San Mar🍃ino 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.
Makin♛g matters worse, KTM’s Brad Binder from fourth managed to take second from Bagnaia into Turn 1꧑ too.
Bagnaia was able to quickly dispatch wiꦕth Binder on the run down to Turn 8, with Bastianini followingꦫ 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 f𝓰ourth✨ 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 do♉wn 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 wid🀅e 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 o𓃲n in the final laps, he could do nothin✨g to stop Bagnaia winning his fourth sprint of the season.
Bastianini had strong pace la💎te 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 bliste😼ring start, Binder quickly fell down the order and wa♋s sixth in the end ahead of Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo.
The final points in the sprint went to VR46 Du🧜cati rider Marco Bezzecchi and Pramac’s Franco Morbidelli.
Maverick Vinales was the first of the A𝄹prilia’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.
