Martin keeps title hopes alive with sprint win, Bagnaia fifth

With 21 points splitting Bagnaia and Martin coming into this weekend’s finale in Valencia, the former could have won the championship in the sprint by outscoring his rival by at least four points.

But, despite leading early on, Bagnaia could only finish fifth on his factory Ducati as Martin stormed through to win and cut his points deficit down to 14 going into Sunday’s grand prix.

Martin beat KTM’s Brad Binder, while Marc Marquez completed the podium on his Honda as he gets set for his farewell with the Japanese marque on Sunday.

Having turned around his miserable Friday form in which he fell into Q1, Bagnaia launched from second on the grid on his Ducati and took the holeshot at the start.

But poleman Maverick Vinales on the Aprilia immediately struck back, taking the lead into Turn 2 as Martin moved up to third from sixth on the grid.

Martin then launched a raid on Bagnaia into Turn 11, with the latter snapping back on the exit to hold onto second.

However, this all allowed Binder to draw alongside, with the KTM rider, Marquez and Martin overtaking Bagnaia into Turn 12 to demote him to fifth.

All of this squabbling allowed Vinales to steal a lead of eight tenths, but Binder quickly carved into this and made his first attempt to take the position away from the Spaniard on lap six.

Binder threw his RC16 up the inside of Vinales at Turn 4, with the Aprilia retaliating into the next corner to hold the lead.

On lap seven, Binder made the move at Turn 4 stick, while behind Marquez made contact with Martin as he tried to take third from the Pramac rider at Turn 6.

Martin moved into second at Turn 1 at the start of lap eight of 13, before Marquez took the final podium spot away from the Aprilia at Turn 6.

At Turn 11 on the same tour, Binder ran wide into Turn 11 and let Martin into a lead he wouldn’t relinquish through to the chequered flag.

Binder kept glued to the back of him, but crossed the line 0.190s adrift in second, as Marquez completed the podium.

Vinales was fourth as Bagnaia fended off Gresini’s Fabio Di Giannantonio to hold onto fifth.

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team

VR46 Ducati’s Marco Bezzecchi was seventh, with Gresini’s Alex Marquez and Pramac’s Johann Zarco taking the final sprint points down to ninth.

Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo was the only non-finisher…