Espargaro soars past Bagnaia to Sprint win
There was no stopping Aleix Espargaro from charging to Catalan MotoGP Sprint win after he overhauled Francesco Bagnaia.
Bagnaia led the first six laps of the race but he could not resist the charging Espargaro, who flew down the inside of turn one and never looked back.
The Aprilia rider charged to his maiden Sprint win by 2s ahead of Bagnaia, who had to fend off Espargaro’s teammate Maverick Vinales for second in a tense final lap battle.
KTM’s Brad Binder crossed the line in fourth place, as Aussie teammate Jack Miller struggled to 16th.
Riders lined up on the grid with a threat of rain that never materialised as Bagnaia started from pole having set a record-breaking 1:38.639, while Miller started 12th.
The #1 Ducati got a strong start and took control into turn one, leading Vinales, who shot past Martin around the outside.
Espargaro also got by Martin to take third, while Miguel Oliveira dropped from third to seventh.
Miller was on the outside, but received a hip and shoulder from Alex Marquez.
Despite the moment the Aussie sat as high as 10th on the first lap, but soon dropped to 14th.
At the end of lap one Espargaro made a big lunge on his teammate at turn one and made it stick for second.
Two laps later Martin tried to pull off the same move, but could not get his Pramac Ducati stopped and went off, losing two spots.
At the front of the field Bagnaia looked dangerous, opening up a four tenth lead, but Espargaro was not going away.
At one third distance the Aprilia rider set the fastest lap of the race to trim the gap to less than two tenths.
Meanwhile his younger brother Pol Espargaro was not enjoying such a promising race and crashed at turn five.
By lap seven Espargaro was right behind the back wheel of Bagnaia and took aim at turn one.
Despite the Ducati not giving up without a fight, Espargaro’s pace was too much and he sneaked down the inside with a smart slipstream move and quickly built an advantage.
Within a lap the gap was already over half a second as the Aprilia rider checked out.
Attention then turned to Vinales to see if he could make it an Aprilia one-two.
Despite having looks at turns one, three on the final lap, Vinales could not overhaul Bagnaia.
Ducati will need to find a response in the Grand Prix at 22.00 AEST tonight.
Photo by Gold and Goose / LAT Images
Catalan Grand Prix Sprint results
| Pos | Name | Team | Bike | Gap | Best Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Aleix Espargaró | Aprilia Racing | Aprilia | 1m39.327s | |
| 2 | Francesco Bagnaia | Ducati Lenovo Team | Ducati | +1.989s | 1m39.366s |
| 3 | Maverick Viñales | Aprilia Racing | Aprilia | +2.04s | 1m39.621s |
| 4 | Brad Binder | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | KTM | +2.857s | 1m39.572s |
| 5 | Jorge Martin | Prima Pramac Racing | Ducati | +4.341s | 1m39.696s |
| 6 | Miguel Oliveira | CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP Team | Aprilia | +4.94s | 1m39.414s |
| 7 | Johann Zarco | Prima Pramac Racing | Ducati | +6.746s | 1m39.954s |
| 8 | Marco Bezzecchi | Mooney VR46 Racing Team | Ducati | +6.888s | 1m39.987s |
| 9 | Enea Bastianini | Ducati Lenovo Team | Ducati | +8.068s | 1m40.009s |
| 10 | Alex Marquez | Gresini Racing MotoGP | Ducati | +10.38s | 1m40.029s |
| 11 | Marc Marquez | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | +11.823s | 1m40.113s |
| 12 | Luca Marini | Mooney VR46 Racing Team | Ducati | +11.9s | 1m40.379s |
| 13 | Fabio Di Giannantonio | Gresini Racing MotoGP | Ducati | +12.018s | 1m39.955s |
| 14 | Raul Fernandez | CryptoDATA RNF MotoGP Team | Aprilia | +13.284s | 1m40.325s |
| 15 | Franco Morbidelli | Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP | Yamaha | +16.207s | 1m40.533s |
| 16 | Jack Miller | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | KTM | +16.404s | 1m40.367s |
| 17 | Augusto Fernandez | GASGAS Factory Racing Tech3 | KTM | +16.534s | 1m40.494s |
| 18 | Fabio Quartararo | Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP | Yamaha | +17.147s | 1m40.864s |
| 19 | Iker Lecuona | LCR Honda CASTROL | Honda | +18.658s | 1m40.864s |
| 20 | Takaaki Nakagami | LCR Honda IDEMITSU | Honda | +19.08s | 1m41.032s |
| 21 | Joan Mir | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | +19.574s | 1m41.042s |
| Pol Espargaró | GASGAS Factory Racing Tech3 | KTM | 1m40.094s |
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