Bagnaia hauls in Martin

Francesco Bagnaia made Jorge Martin pay for a small mistake to snatch the Sprint of the Emilia Romagna Motorcycle Grand Prix.

Martin led the first seven of 13 laps, but ran wide at Turn 13 which allowed Bagnaia to blaze past.

The reigning champion didn’t not give Martin another sniff to claim the Saturday bragging rights of the second leg of the Misano MotoGP double header at Circuit Marco Simoncelli.

It was another Ducati whitewash in the quiet Sprint with Enea Bastianini on the podium followed by Marc Marquez, while Pedro Acosta was best of the rest.

Australia’s Jack Miller gained ground from a tough qualifying and finished 16th.

It was a handy success for Bagnaia as his fourth Sprint win cut down Martin’s points lead to four.

Bagnaia comfortably led an all Ducati front row in qualifying by two tenths ahead of Martin and Bastianini, while Binder and Acosta completed the top five with Miller down in 19th and Marc Marquez crashing.

However, the pole man dropped to third after a slow start where Martin and Binder shot past.

The KTM rider’s time in second only lasted six corners before both factory Ducatis flew past, while Marc Marquez also picked off the South African.

These battles ensured Martin could enjoy a solid six tenth over Bagnaia on the opening lap, while Marquez jumped three spots to fourth.

There was more pain for Binder on the second lap as future teammate Acosta muscled by and pushed the #33 outside the top five.

Miller was another to make decent early ground, rising four spots to 15th.

By Lap 3 it was clear the top two were in a league of their own, but Bagnaia had the most pace to burn, being the only rider to be in the 1m30s window.

As a result he was able to creep closer to the back wheel of the #89 and look dangerous at the halfway mark.

Just when Bagnaia was on the verge of making an attack, he had a moment coming out of Turn 5 on Lap 7, but carried on.

Although the #1 was pushing hard, Martin responded and critically dipped into the 1m30s and match the reigning champion.

With both riders pushing the limits, it was a special spectacle and the first to crack was Martin.

The Spaniard ran wide at the second of four right handers from turns 12-14 which presented the perfect opportunity for Bagnaia to charge to the lead.

Martin thought about performing the switchback, but Bagnaia perfectly placed his Ducati to deny any of those thoughts. In a blink Bagnaia already opened up half a second on his title rival.

Marc Marquez made a similar mistake at the same section of the track, going even further wide, but did not lose fourth place.

The gap between the leaders was 0.540s at the start of the final lap and whilst Martin gained three tenths, could not challenge Bagnaia.

They will do battle again at 21.00 AEST in the main race tonight.

Image: Gold and Goose

2024 Emilia Romagna Motorcycle Grand Prix Sprint results

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