Martin wins Qatar MotoGP Sprint, Miller misses points

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

Race winner: 11 laps

Riders’ championship