The only grid change before the race would see Joan Mir dropped 3 positions for “riding too slowly on the racing line” during Q1. He then started in 18th.
The sprint began with a very aggressive Quartararo and Acosta, who went 3 wide with Marc Marquez into turn 1. Quartararo getting the jump on Marquez and Acosta. While they fought behind for second place, Alex Marquez started making some space between himself and the lead group. Acosta looked to then charge past Marc and Quartararo on the straight before Marc to sweep past with slipstream a put a block pass on Acosta into turn 1.
Quartararo took advantage of Acosta running wide and that got him into 3rd. DiGiantonio also took advantage of the battling ahead and found a way past Acosta. Acosta then losing ground to the leaders, found himself in a 3 way battle with teammates Binder and Bastianini (which continued elbow to elbow until the finish line in a great show that was separated by less than a 1/10th).
Morbidelli and Ogura both had awful starts off the line and dropped from the top 10 before the first turn. In trying to gain positions Morbidelli was too late braking and crashed into the back of Jorge Martin in turn 10.
A lap later, the other factory Aprilia rider, Marco Bezzecchi, was taken out by a mistake by Fermin Aldegur which appeared to hurt Bez’s wrist as he looked in a lot of pain. And all while out front with a 1.5 second lead, Alex Marquez managed to drop his bike into Turn 10, giving his brother (who had accepted his 2nd place until the crash) his 14th (of 15) Sprint win of the season.
Bagnaia who started in 21st, finished in 14th while 5 riders fell ahead of him. So another horrible weekend coming the way of Ducati’s former poster boy. With Marc winning and Bagnaia gaining only 2 positions and zero points, Alex and Bez without any points, Marc’s dominance continues unrivalled.
Other notes; Miller got as high as 9th before slipping down to finish 12th, Olivera scored his first point in a sprint for Yamaha after losing his seat for next year to Toprak Razgatlioglu. Aleix Esparago, who won last years sprint in his final season as a fulltime rider, could only manage 16th this year on the Honda RC213V (although he has had a recent injury that stopped him wildcarding the Hungarian GP last weekend). Lorenzo Savadori, the Aprilia test rider, retired with a technical issue.
#1 Marc Marquez
#2 Fabio Quartararo
#3 Fabio DiGiantonio
#4 Pedro Acosta
#5 Enea Bastianini
#6 Brad Binder
#7 Johan Zarco
#8 Luca Marini
#9 Ai Ogura
#10 Miguel Olivera
