Bastianini wins sprint from Martin, Bagnaia crashes

Enea Bastianini won MotoGP’s British Grand Prix sprint for the factory Ducati team, but a crash for his team-mate Francesco Bagnaia allowed Jorge Martin to close in the title race.

Bastianini passed long-time leader Martin on lap seven of 10, claiming a first victory of any kind in MotoGP since Malaysia 2023, while Aleix Espargaro recovered from a slow start to complete the podium for Aprilia.

At the start, Bagnaia got the holeshot from second on the grid as he jumped polesitter Espargaro, but both were passed by Pramac rider Martin.

Bastianini also managed to get through on Espargaro and Bagnaia, putting himself right behind new race leader Martin.

For the next phase of the race, Martin and Bastianini ran in close formation, with both Bagnaia and Espargaro circulating slightly adrift of the leading duo in third and fourth positions.

Just after Bagnaia had picked up his speed and set the fastest lap on the fourth tour, the factory Ducati rider lost the front end of his GP24 into Turn 4 and fell on the ground, retiring immediately from the race.

With Bagnaia out of the picture, Bastianini upped the pressure on Martin, attempting a move into Copse on the following lap before running wide and allowing the Spaniard back through.

But a lap later he sealed the pass on the Pramac rider into Stowe, before streaking clear of his rival to win by 1.094s.

Martin couldn’t keep pace with Bastianini, but managed to pull away from Espargaro to secure second position and cut the deficit to Bagnaia in the championship to just one point.

Gresini’s Marc Marquez seemed set to take fourth place after climbing up from seventh on the grid, but the six-time champion lost control of his GP23 going into Vale on the penultimate lap and ended up in the gravel.

This elevated KTM’s Brad Binder up to fourth ahead of Tech3 GasGas rider Pedro Acosta, the duo surviving contact on lap two that threw pieces of bodywork into the air.

Alex Marquez took sixth on the sole-surviving Gresini bike, while KTM’s Jack Miller recovered from a poor qualifying to finish seventh.

Maverick Vinales couldn’t replicate the pace of his team-mate Espargaro and was classified a distant eighth, while the top 10 was rounded out by VR46’s Fabio di Giannantonio and Trackhouse rider Miguel Oliveira.

Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo was the highest-placed rider on a Japanese bike in 11th, three…