Martin wins Misano sprint as Bagnaia edges Pedrosa for podium

Jorge Martin came out on top in the San Marino MotoGP sprint race at Misano, while injured championship leader Francesco Bagnaia outdueled star wildcard Dani Pedrosa to claim a podium finish.

Starting on pole position, Pramac Ducati’s Jorge Martin bolted into the distance in Misano to win his third Sprint Race of the 2023 MotoGP World Championship.

Martin maintained his advantage right away, and while Bagnaia maneuvered past Marco Bezzecchi at Turn 1 to take over the lead in the race, their fellow Ducati rider, who was already in the lead, launched an early charge that quickly pushed him three quarters of a second ahead.

However, it was not going to be particularly that easy for Martin, a slip up from Bagnaia at Tramonto facilitated Bezzecchi to retake the lead, and despite the hand injury he had suffered in Barcelona, the VR46 rider drew closer to Martin.

After three laps, Bezzecchi was within half a second behind the leading Ducati as Martin retaliated, relaunching a considerable margin of victory and fending off every attempt by Bezzecchi to gain ground over the ensuing stretch of laps.

Going wide at the tight Turn 4, Martin ultimately forced Bezzecchi to practically give up the battle and eventually finished 1.445 seconds further down.

Bagnaia obviously lacked the speed to keep up with the leading pair. The Ducati star was also experiencing immense discomfort in his legs after he suffered a highside at Barcelona the previous weekend.

The reigning world champion placed a distant third in the first half of the sprint, but by the final lap, he had two KTMs all over him. He managed to battle off a charge from Dani Pedrosa into Turn 1 as well as continually surging Brad Binder up until the chequered flag.

Therefore, Bagnaia still has a 45-point advantage over Martin, with Bezzecchi trailing by a further 24 points.

Test rider Pedrosa still managed to give KTM’s brand-new carbon chassis a very respectable race debut as he crossed the line fourth, followed by Binder, who had moved up from ninth to sixth on the second lap and later passed Maverick Vinales after a few laps spent trailing the Aprilia.

Vinales made a more conservative run during the entire race, and still managed to finish sixth, holding off Luca Marini’s sister VR46 Ducati.

Aleix Espargaro, a teammate of Vinales, secured two points after finishing eighth, while Alex Marquez wrapped up points score on his Gresini Ducati.

Marc Marquez, who is currently under contract with Honda through the end of 2024 but has been linked to a move to Gresini for the next season, was running eighth after the first lap as he raced to give Honda its first sprint-race points since the Mugello.

However, because of a small error, his brother Alex was able to advance, and Marc ultimately finished in 10th place.

No crashes occurred during the race, but there were numerous track limits warnings and penalties, including a double long-lap for Joan Mir’s second factory Honda.

2023 San Marino MotoGP Misano World Circuit, Italy Sprint Race Results