Marc Marquez serves up Saturday masterclass as Martin reclaims title lead
The #93 takes his first Tissot Sprint win ahead of Martin and Acosta as Bagnaia duels Quartararo for eighth on Saturday.
Aragon, 31 August 2024: Marc Marquez (Gresini Racing MotoGP) is a Tissot Sprint winner! The #93 started from a pole position secured with the biggest gap in the dry since 2011, took the holeshot and never looked back on Saturday afternoon at the Gran Premio GoPro de Aragon. It’s the first Sprint win for the eight-time World Champion as he escaped Jorge Martin (Prima Pramac Racing) by nearly three seconds.
For Martin, however, a second-place finish puts him back in the Championship lead by four points as reigning Champion Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) had a tougher Sprint and came home ninth for a single point. Completing the podium behind Martin, rookie Pedro Acosta (Red Bull GASGAS Tech3) converted second on the grid to third in the Sprint.
As the lights went out there was an immediate front row fracas for Bagnaia, with the reigning Champion snapping sideways off the line, getting bogged down and then getting close to Alex Marquez (Gresini Racing MotoGP). Ahead, there were no such dramas for Marc Marquez as he took the holeshot and then got the hammer down, shadowed by Martin up from Row 2 and Acosta in third.
Bagnaia was holding station in fourth initially, able to stay ahead of Alex Marquez, but the reigning Champion was making no inroads on the top three. Then he was wide at Turn 5 to drop back to sixth ahead of Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing), before another few scrappy moments saw the South African get past him – and then the fight for sixth lit up.
Binder, Bagnaia and Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP™) had their own throwdown, and Miguel Oliveira (Trackhouse Racing) sliced past all of them to start making some space in fifth. Enea Bastianini (Ducati Lenovo Team) was next on the scene and it settled into Oliveira in fifth, Binder trying to hold off Bastianini and a flashback battle between Quartararo and Bagnaia.
Up ahead, Marc Marquez laid down the gauntlet ahead of the Grand Prix as his first Sprint win ups the hype even more. The Gresini Racing MotoGP rider has led every session of his weekend so far and if he wins on Sunday it will be his first victory since 2021, over 1000 days ago.
Martin pulled out a gap on Acosta by the flag, and the rookie also managed to keep some fresh air ahead of Alex Marquez in fourth. Oliveira kept fifth, with Binder staying in P6 by just over a tenth over Bastianini.
Behind, it went to the wire in the Bagnaia vs Quartararo battle, with the Frenchman sending it a couple of times before managing to complete the pickpocket and sit the #1 up. Bagnaia then came under attack on the last lap from Marco Bezzecchi (Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team), but the #1 was able to answer on the cut back and cross the line for that final Sprint point in P9.
Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing) crashed out early on at Turn 1 and nearly took Fabio Di Giannantonio (Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team) with him, but the returning Italian stayed upright. Further drama included a crash for Franco Morbidelli (Prima Pramac Racing) – rider ok – and one for Johann Zarco (CASTROL Honda LCR), rider also ok but that adding a blip to the Frenchman’s otherwise stunning weekend at Aragon so far.
Join us again on Sunday for the Grand Prix race as Marc Marquez looks for a date with destiny – and everyone else looks to stop him 1043 days later.
