MotoGP news: Martin dominates French MotoGP Sprint, Bagnaia DNF

Jorge Martin won the MotoGP Sprint at France's Le Mans. Image: Supplied — Jorge Martin won the MotoGP Sprint at France’s Le Mans. Image: Supplied

Martin (Prima Pramac Ducati) had qualified on pole position and converted that into the early lead as Bagnaia (Ducati Team) dropped from the middle of the front row to 15th in the opening sectors of the Le Mans circuit.

Marc Marquez (Gresini Ducati), on the other hand, bolted from Row 5 to be passing Fabio Di Giannantonio (Pertamina VR46 Ducati) for fifth at Turn 6.

He went under Maverick Viñales (Aprilia Racing) through Turn 11/Turn 12 to run fourth at the end of the standing lap, behind Martin, Marco Bezzecchi (Pertamina VR46 Ducati), and Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing).

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The latter would be issued a double Long Lap Penalty for a jumpstart while the reason for Bagnaia’s tardy getaway became apparent when he was off the track with a technical problem and into retirement.

Marc Marquez inherited third place with the first of Espargaro’s double Long Laps and assumed second place on Lap 10 when Bezzecchi crashed at Turn 9.

That spill turned Martin’s second-plus lead over #72 into a two-second margin over #93, with Viñales third at the time from Enea Bastianini (Ducati Team), Espargaro, Pedro Acosta (Red Bull GasGas Tech3), Di Giannantonio, and Jack Miller (Red Bull KTM), who had run sixth in the early stages.

Martin won by 2.280s after 13 laps, from Marc Marquez, Viñales, Bastianini, Espargaro, and Acosta, who made a big save when he ran wide and nearly crashed exiting Turn 14 on the penultimate lap.

Di Giannantonio was seventh, Miller eighth, and Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse Aprilia) the final pointscorer in ninth, with Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha) rounding out the top 10.

There were four DNFs in the end, with Alex Rins (Monster Energy Yamaha) and Joan Mir (Repsol Honda) crashing separately.

Martin now leads the championship by 28 points, with Bastianini second and Bagnaia a point further back in third.

Race results: Sprint race

Pos	Num	Rider	Nat	Team	Bike	Time/Gap
1	89	J. Martin	ESP	Prima Pramac Racing	Ducati	19:49.694
2	93	M. Marquez	ESP	Gresini Racing MotoGP	Ducati	+2.280
3	12	M. Viñales	ESP	Aprilia Racing	Aprilia	+4.174
4	23	E. Bastianini	ITA	Ducati Lenovo Team	Ducati	+4.798
5	41	A. Espargaro	ESP	Aprilia Racing	Aprilia	+7.698
6	31	P. Acosta	ESP	Red Bull GASGAS Tech3	GasGas	+9.185
7	49	F. Di Giannantonio	ITA	Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team	Ducati	+11.190
8	43	J. Miller	AUS	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM	+11.516
9	25	R. Fernandez	ESP	Trackhouse Racing	Aprilia	+12.257
10	20	F. Quartararo	FRA	Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha	+12.699
11	88	M. Oliveira	POR	Trackhouse Racing	Aprilia	+13.492
12	21	F. Morbidelli	ITA	Prima Pramac Racing	Ducati	+15.578
13	5	J. Zarco	FRA	LCR Honda	Honda	+16.439
14	73	A. Marquez	ESP	Gresini Racing MotoGP	Ducati	+16.816
15	33	B. Binder	RSA	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM	+16.969
16	30	T. Nakagami	JPN	LCR Honda	Honda	+19.123
17	37	A. Fernandez	ESP	Red Bull GASGAS Tech3	GasGas	+23.618
18	10	L. Marini	ITA	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	+27.854
DNF	72	M. Bezzecchi	ITA	Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team	Ducati	9 laps
DNF	42	A. Rins	ESP	Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha	6 laps
DNF	36	J. Mir	ESP	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	4 laps
DNF	1	F. Bagnaia	ITA	Ducati Lenovo Team	Ducati	3 laps

Race winner: 13 laps

Riders’ championship

Pos	Rider	Nat	Pts
1	J. Martin	ESP	104
2	E. Bastianini	ITA	76
3	F. Bagnaia	ITA	75
4	P. Acosta	ESP	73
5	M. Viñales	ESP	70
6	M. Marquez	ESP	69
7	B. Binder	RSA	59
8	A. Espargaro	ESP	44
9	F. Di Giannantonio	ITA	37
10	M. Bezzecchi	ITA	36
11	A. Marquez	ESP	27
12	F. Quartararo	FRA	25
13	J. Miller	AUS	24
14	M. Oliveira	POR	23
15	R. Fernandez	ESP	13
16	J. Mir	ESP	12
17	A. Fernandez	ESP	10
18	D. Pedrosa	ESP	7
19	F. Morbidelli	ITA	6
20	A. Rins	ESP	6
21	J. Zarco	FRA	5
22	T. Nakagami	JPN	4
23	L. Marini	ITA	0
24	S. Bradl	GER	0
25	L. Savadori	ITA	0