Martin ends victory drought in sprint

Jorge Martin passed Francesco Bagnaia on the final lap of the sprint race at Austin on Saturday to win his first MotoGP race since his world championship-winning season in 2024. 

The thrilling sprint also saw Marc Marquez clash with Fabio Di Giannantonio on the first lap, ruining both of their races. Marco Bezzecchi also fell, losing his points lead to factory Aprilia team-mate Martin.

Polesitter Di Giannantonio had a good getaway but did not play his cards right at the wide first corner, getting shuffled out by Bagnaia (Ducati), Pedro Acosta (KTM) and Marquez (Ducati). 

Di Giannantonio pulled off a strong move on Marquez to reclaim third shortly thereafter, but when Marquez tried to strike back at the end of the back straight, it was to spell the end of the race for both. 

Marquez ran the VR46 Ducati deep with his move up the inside at Turn 12, but went wide himself and fell. He skittled straight into the Italian, putting them both on the floor and well out of contention for any points. 

Martin had been sixth and looking an unlikely victor as the pack emerged from the first corner, but his choice of a medium rear tyre – the rest of the field took a soft – appeared to be a masterstroke as he picked off his rivals and surged up towards Bagnaia on the final lap. 

‘Pecco’ had long appeared to have the race sewn up, but Martin took chunks out of his 2024 title rival as the final two laps unfolded. He executed a tough but fair move on the last tour to muscle past Bagnaia at Turn 12 and take the win – despite doubts about his fitness even for the short sprint at this most physical of tracks.

Bizarrely, Martin crashed while performing a wheelie on his in-lap, but walked away from the incident to continue his victory celebrations.

Bagnaia trailed the Spaniard home for an encouraging second place, with Acosta completing the sprint medals. 

Bezzecchi, meanwhile, had been disputing second with Martin when he fell at Turn 11 on lap eight of 10. That marked the second time he has crashed out of a strong sprint position this season, following his fall from the lead in Thailand. 

Another rider to shine and then fall was the crash-prone Joan Mir. The Spanish rider was looking good in fourth aboard the factory Honda, and pressuring Acosta, before losing it at the first corner of the final lap.  

Enea Bastianini rode an excellent attacking race on the Tech3 KTM to grab the fourth place vacated by Mir. The 2022 COTA winner passed Alex Marquez (Gresini Ducati) on the final lap to secure the spot.

MotoGP US GP – Sprint results:

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– The Autosport.com Team