Martín secures season-opening Sprint Race glory in Qatar

After finishing last season in tears, it was all smiles for Jorge Martín after taking a flag-to-flag victory in the first Sprint race of the 2024 MotoGP season in Qatar.

It was all to play for as MotoGP went racing in Qatar for the very first time in 2024.

Jorge Martín has his sights set on going one better in the championship this year, with the Spaniard starting the season-opening Sprint from Pole.

Into the first corner, Martín maintained his lead, however, it was the Red Bull KTM riders who both got off to flying starts.

Brad Binder promoted himself into second place after starting from fourth, already building a gap of five-tenths before the first of the eleven laps had ten completed.

Binder avoided a near collision with the Sprint leader as they rounded the first turn for a second time, gaining too much speed in the slipstream of the Prima Pramac rider.

His teammate, who lined up from P11, found himself running in P6 after the first lap, tussling with this year’s newest Gressini rider, Marc Marquez.

Jack Miller started fading, losing four places on Lap 2 of the Sprint.

The leading duo soon became a leading quartet, with Francesco Bagnaia and Aleix Espargaro joining the victory fight.

Fabio DiGiannantonio had a scary moment through Turn 11, coming off his VR46 Ducati on Lap 4, and crawling to safety, with the Italian unable to get on his feet.

Yellow Flags reappeared in Sector 3, with marshals clearing debris from the incident. 

Marc Marquez passed a messy Enea Bastianini, leading the Ducati rider up to the rear of the leading pack.

With five laps to go, the gap between Martín and Binder had grown from one-tenth to six-tenths as the KTM faded.

Marquez’s Gressini, however, was only just firing up.

In his first competitive race with his new team, the #93 had worked his way into P4, hunting down last year’s world champion. 

His hopes of a Sprint podium disappeared, however, as he ran wide through Turn 14, allowing Espargaro to push past. 

His mindset quickly shifted from offensive to defensive, with Bastianini promptly bringing the battle to Marquez as they rounded the final corner with two laps remaining.

Marquez remained ahead, however, not out of threat.

Out of Turn 15, the #41 Aprilia rider relegated Bagnaia out of the Sprint podium positions.

He attempted to chase down the South African ahead, however, one last lap just wasn’t enough to get the job done.

Jorge Martín crossed the line clear of the pack, starting off his 2024 title campaign with 12 points in the bag.

P2 was Brad Binder’s from the very first corner of the 11-lap Sprint, with the KTM rider bringing home 9 points to start the season. 

Aleix Espargaro claimed his first-ever MotoGP podium in Qatar, eager to go the full distance in tomorrow night’s full-length Grand Prix. 

Alex Marquez found himself out of the fight for much of the Sprint, still taking home his first points of the season in P7, ahead of Pedro Acosta who put his name on the points board on his MotoGP Sprint debut, and Maverick Viñales. 

As for Jack Miller, the Australian finished out of the points in the first competitive racing event of the year.

Miller, in P10, crossed the line 12.6 seconds behind the race leader and notably 6 seconds behind Viñales who was the rider directly ahead for much of the Sprint. 

The riders will do it all over again tomorrow, with the 22-lap Qatar Grand Prix kicking off at 4:00 AM, AEST, tomorrow morning. 

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