Before the start of the season he had been placed among the favorites for the sprint races but Jorge Martin, for one reason or another, had never been able to live up to his reputation. He did it today at Le Mans, in a race to be applauded. After following Bagnaia for a couple of laps (who started from pole position), he passed him and then set an unsustainable pace for everyone. The Spaniard of the Pramac team was able to salute his first victory of the year alone, with Binder’s KTM at a safe distance. If the first two fought against the clock, for the third step of the podium the battle was close and spectacular.
Protagonists Bagnaia and Marquez. The two battled it out, hull to hull, until 4 laps from the end, the world champion led the decisive attack on the Spanish Honda rider. Pecco didn’t like the overtaking suffered earlier: «Marc touched me and I lost a couple of positions, it was a tense moment, but then everything went well» commented the Ducati rider.
Marquez then also had to be overtaken by Luca Marini, who started from the front row right behind him. At the finish line he thus moved to 5th place, ahead of Zarco. The applause of the many French fans was all for Johann, after Quartararo crashed with 4 laps to go when he managed to recover from 16th to 8th position.
Seventh place for Bezzecchi, who lost second place in the championship to Binder: now Pecco is 94 points, 23 more than Brad, while Marco is 26 behind the leader.
Returning to the classification of the race, the two Aprilias of Espargaró and Viñales finished in 7th and 9th place. No points for Fabio Di Giannantonio and Franco Morbidelli (12th and 13th). Danilo Petrucci, back in MotoGP to replace the injured Bastianini, finished penultimate in his first sprint race, ahead of Lorenzo Savadori, the Aprilia test rider who rides in Oliveira’s place, who was also at home due to an injury.
