The #89 Pramac Racing Ducati led the #33 Red Bull KTM for all 11 laps around the Lusail International Circuit, although never by any more than a few tenths of a second.

Aleix Espargaro took third on his Aprilia RS-GP, from Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Team) and Marc Marquez (Gresini Ducati), while Miller ended up 10th having run as high as sixth on the #43 Red Bull KTM.

Martin had led the field away from pole position although it was a close-run thing as Binder rocketed into second place from the second row.

Espargaro and Bagnaia cleared Enea Bastianini (Ducati Team) on the opening lap to run third and fourth.

Marc Marquez shook off Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46 Ducati) in the battle for sixth on the opening lap and then got by Miller at Turn 6, the start of a slide all the way down to 10th for the Queenslander on Lap 2.

Miller was briefly back in the top nine, and hence championship points, when Di Giannantonio crashed on Lap 3 at Turn 10, while Bagnaia overtook Espargaro for third on Lap 4.

Martin still had not shaken Binder at the very front of the field while Bastianini ran wide at Turn 16 on Lap 5 and handed fifth spot to Marc Marquez.

That became fourth for the Gresini debutant when he opened up the throttle and sped past Espargaro on the main straight as they began Lap 7.

However, then an error from Marquez at Turn 14 cost him momentum and Espargaro reclaimed fourth position on Lap 8, by which time Martin had crept out to a margin of about half a second.

On Lap 10, Espargaro had a dive at Bagnaia at Turn 4 and while he could not make that move stick, he did pull off the pass at Turn 16.

A lap later, Martin clinched a 0.548s victory and 12 championship points, from Binder, Espargaro, Bagnaia, Marc Marquez, Bastiani, Alex Marquez (Gresini Ducati), Pedro Acosta (Red Bull GasGas), and Maverick Viñales (Aprilia Racing) with the final point.

Miller in 10th was almost six seconds behind ninth and 12.670s from the win, with Marco Bezzecchi (VR46 Ducati) 11th and Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha) 12th, while Di Giannantonio was the only DNF.

Martin leads the riders’ championship by three points, midway through Round 1.

Race results: Sprint race

Pos	Num	Rider	Nat	Team	Bike	Time/Gap
1	89	J. Martin	ESP	Prima Pramac Racing	Ducati	20:41.287
2	33	B. Binder	RSA	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM	+0.548
3	41	A. Espargaro	ESP	Aprilia Racing	Aprilia	+0.729
4	1	F. Bagnaia	ITA	Ducati Lenovo Team	Ducati	+1.625
5	93	M. Marquez	ESP	Gresini Racing MotoGP	Ducati	+1.872
6	23	E. Bastianini	ITA	Ducati Lenovo Team	Ducati	+2.322
7	73	A. Marquez	ESP	Gresini Racing MotoGP	Ducati	+3.154
8	31	P. Acosta	ESP	Red Bull GASGAS Tech3	GasGas	+4.431
9	12	M. Viñales	ESP	Aprilia Racing	Aprilia	+6.738
10	43	J. Miller	AUS	Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	KTM	+12.670
11	72	M. Bezzecchi	ITA	Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team	Ducati	+12.835
12	20	F. Quartararo	FRA	Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha	+12.863
13	88	M. Oliveira	POR	Trackhouse Racing	Aprilia	+13.095
14	25	R. Fernandez	ESP	Trackhouse Racing	Aprilia	+13.795
15	36	J. Mir	ESP	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	+14.096
16	5	J. Zarco	FRA	LCR Honda	Honda	+14.840
17	42	A. Rins	ESP	Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP	Yamaha	+15.629
18	37	A. Fernandez	ESP	Red Bull GASGAS Tech3	GasGas	+17.711
19	30	T. Nakagami	JPN	LCR Honda	Honda	+22.733
20	21	F. Morbidelli	ITA	Prima Pramac Racing	Ducati	+23.267
21	10	L. Marini	ITA	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	+25.553
DNF	49	F. Di Giannantonio	ITA	Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team	Ducati	2 laps

Race winner: 11 laps

Riders’ championship

Pos	Rider	Nat	Pts
1	J. Martin	ESP	12
2	B. Binder	RSA	9
3	A. Espargaro	ESP	7
4	F. Bagnaia	ITA	6
5	M. Marquez	ESP	5
6	E. Bastianini	ITA	4
7	A. Marquez	ESP	3
8	P. Acosta	ESP	2
9	M. Viñales	ESP	1
10	J. Miller	AUS	0
11	M. Bezzecchi	ITA	0
12	F. Quartararo	FRA	0
13	M. Oliveira	POR	0
14	R. Fernandez	ESP	0
15	J. Mir	ESP	0
16	J. Zarco	FRA	0
17	A. Rins	ESP	0
18	A. Fernandez	ESP	0
19	T. Nakagami	JPN	0
20	F. Morbidelli	ITA	0
21	L. Marini	ITA	0
22	F. Di Giannantonio	ITA	0