Bagnaia dominates sprint as Quartararo crashes

Taking the inaugural sprint victory in Portugal last month, Bagnaia had to fend off a hard-charging Alex Rins on the LCR Honda on the opening lap to hold onto his pole position.

Once he’d successfully retaken the lead from Rins at Turn 12 on the first lap, Bagnaia steadily built up an unassailable advantage to take the chequered flag 2.545 seconds clear of Rins.

Behind, a crash for 2021 world champion Quartararo has further hindered his title aspirations as he overrode his Yamaha fighting for the top five.

Second for Rins marked his first podium of any kind as a Honda rider, while an unwell Jorge Martin on the Pramac Ducati salvaged third after capitalising on a late error for Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro.

Rins got the holeshot into Turn 1 off the line at the start of the 10-lap sprint contest, but allowed Bagnaia back through when he ran into the opening corner deep.

Espargaro leaped up to third as team-mate Maverick Vinales dropped to 18th, while Quartararo put his Yamaha fourth from eighth on the grid.

Rins made a bold move for the lead on the inside of Bagnaia at the Turn 7 left-hander, though could do nothing to stop the Ducati powering past into Turn 12 moments later.

Bagnaia didn’t immediately escape, but was thrown a brief bit of breathing space when Rins ran wide as he outbraked himself at the Turn 12 hairpin on lap two.

This released Espargaro into second, while Quartararo dropped into the clutches of Martin as he failed to capitalise on Rins’ error – the pair making slight contact at Turn 13 as the LCR Honda rider tried to recover from his mistake.

Bagnaia led Espargaro by just under six tenths as he crossed the line to start the third lap, extending this to over seven tenths two tours later.

Martin eased past Quartararo on lap three for fourth, before the Frenchman ran off trying to keep the Gresini Ducati of Alex Marquez at bay on the fourth lap.

Quartararo’s race would last just a handful of corners more as he crashed under braking for Turn 1 at the start of lap five.

As Bagnaia swelled his lead to over a second, Rins had regrouped from his earlier mistake to try to retake second from Espargaro on lap six.

Rins was unable to stop his Honda to get to the apex for Turn 11 and allowed Espargaro to maintain second, but was succumb on lap seven at Turn 7.

Jorge Martin, Pramac Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Espargaro would lose…