Marco Bezzecchi scored his first MotoGP sprint victory as an Aprilia rider in the San Marino Grand Prix after Marc Marquez crashed out shortly after taking the lead.
Bezzecchi and Marquez duelled for the top spot in the half-distance race at Misano, with the latter taking the lead at the start of lap six of 13. But on the very same lap, he made a rare error and let go of his Ducati, handing Bezzecchi a lead he wouldn’t relinquish.
At the start of the race, Alex Marquez got the best launch from the middle of the front row, but polesitter Bezzecchi swept past him into Turn 1 to hold on to the lead.
Marc Marquez then went around the outside of his younger brother to snatch second into Turn 2, having already leapfogged the Yamaha of Fabio Quartararo.
The six-time world champion then set about chasing Bezzecchi, who initially did enough to manage the gap at the front. However, on lap five, the Aprilia rider ran wide at Turn 14, bringing the world championship leader back into play.
Marquez wasted little time to make a move, sending his factory Ducati up the inside at Turn 6 to hit the front for the first time. But, on the very same lap, he threw it all away, losing the front end of his bike into Turn 15 and crashing out of the sprint.
It was the Spaniard’s first high-profile crash in any format since the Spanish Grand Prix in April, and ended his streak of eight consecutive sprint victories.
Marco Bezzecchi, Aprilia Racing, Marc Marquez, Ducati Team
Photo by: Andreas Solaro / AFP via Getty Images
With Marquez out, Bezzecchi retook the lead of the race, with Alex Marquez moving back into second on the lead Gresini GP24. The two continued to race in close formation for the next few laps, keeping the fight open, but Bezzecchi steadily increased the gap to over a second with three laps to go.
The younger Marquez mounted a late attack to bring the deficit down to six tenths, but Bezzecchi picked up the pace again to clinch his second career sprint win. This marked the first time a non-Ducati rider won a sprint since last year’s Catalan GP in May 2024, when Aleix Espargaro took the top spot for Aprilia.
Behind Alex Marquez in second, VR46’s Fabio di Giannantonio crossed the finish line in third to score back-to-back sprint podiums. Franco Morbidelli finished right behind his team-mate in fourth, while Pedro Acosta finished a solid fifth for KTM after crashing in qualifying.
Gresini’s Fermin Aldeguer rose from 10th on the grid to finish sixth, leading the top Honda of Luca Marini and the second factory Aprilia of reigning champion Jorge Martin. The final points-scoring position went to Trackhouse Racing’s Raul Fernandez in ninth.
Two-time MotoGP champion Francesco Bagnaia endured another sprint race to forget on the factory Ducati, slipping from eighth to 13th. The Italian made a poor start and dropped outside the top 10 by the end of lap two, before slipping further down the order.
Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo retired from the race after crashing out from fourth place on lap five, while Augusto Fernandez brought the V4-powered M1 home in 18th.
San Marino GP – Sprint results:
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