MotoGP Australian GP: Martin dominant in sprint, Bagnaia fourth
Jorge Martin converted a dominant pole position into a crushing victory in the Australian Grand Prix sprint race on Saturday.
The world championship leader easily defeated Marc Marquez (Gresini Ducati) and Enea Bastianini (factory Ducati) after leading from lights to flag at Phillip Island.
Martin’s lead over Francesco Bagnaia grew from 10 to 16 points after the factory Ducati rider came home fourth.
Martin disappeared after an excellent start from the first grid slot, led by almost a second on lap four and three seconds on lap eight. He throttled back a little towards the end, but was always in control.
Behind him, it was an entertaining race. Marquez may have had the pace to challenge Martin, but he ran wide in the first corner after starting second. That saw him drop as low as eighth before he immediately launched a recovery ride.
He was up into second by lap eight, but by then it was too late to do anything about Martin in the 13-lap sprint. Marquez's second place was ultimately a solid one as he finished 2.8s ahead of Bastianini.
Bagnaia ran as high as second after a good getaway from the second row, but then began to struggle. He was passed in quick succession by Marco Bezzecchi (VR46 Ducati), Marquez and team-mate Bastianini.
Then Bezzecchi also began to drop off the pace, which saw him defending fourth spot from Aprilia’s front-row starter Maverick Vinales in the closing laps. At the start of lap 11, the pair were involved in a high-speed collision after Vinales had completed a move on the way into Doohan corner.
Bezzecchi was initially put on a stretcher, but was later seen on the back of a scooter as he headed to the medical centre for check-ups.
The frightening incident left team-mate Fabio di Giannantonio to salvage a fifth spot for VR46. However, di Giannantonio was later given an eight-second penalty for a front tyre pressure that was too low.
This dropped him to seventh behind countryman Franco Morbidelli (Pramac Ducati) and Raul Fernandez, who had lost ground from the second row and then had to recover.
Morbidelli was spared a last-lap fight for position when his KTM foe Brand Binder fell on the penultimate lap.
He was followed by the factory Aprilia of Aleix Espargaro, who had started way down in 20th.
Augusto Fernandez was ninth for Tech3 KTM and Luca Marini delivered Honda a top 10 after qualifying 13th, his best grid position of the season.
Alex Rins had qualified an uplifting ninth for Yamaha, but was surpassed by his team-mate Fabio Quartararo in the race. The pair finished 11th and 12th, at the back of a four-bike train led by Fernandez and Marini.
Only 15 riders finished the race, with the other fallers including local hero Jack Miller (KTM), Tech3 GasGas rider Pedro Acosta, LCR Honda's Johann Zarco and Gresini's Alex Marquez.
Acosta had failed to make substantial ground during the sprint after qualifying a lowly 15th. He then crashed three laps from home.
Trackhouse Aprilia rider Lorenzo Savadori is in some doubt for Sunday's Australian Grand Prix after a piece of debris was thrown up by another rider and hit him on the arm.
