-Marc Marquez crashes while leading
-Pedro Acosta finishes second
-Fabio Quartararo crosses the line in third but gets a penalty
The Sprint Race of the 2024 MotoGP Spanish Grand Prix turned out to be a battle of survival for a lot of riders, with Prima Pramac Ducati’s Jorge Martin emerging as the victor. Nobody could’ve predicted the result of the Race, what with several riders crashing, and Fabio Quartararo starting from 23rd on the Grid and crossing the line in third. Here is what went down.
A chaotic start
Marc Marquez clinched Pole position at the Circuito de Jerez-Angel Nieto, much to the delight of the Spanish fans who’ve been waiting to see the eight time world champion begin a race at the front. Sadly, the start didn’t go as planned for Marquez as KTM’s Brad Binder and Pramac Duacti’s Jorge Martin overtook him in the first set of corners.
Martin then made a brilliant move on Binder and snatched the lead from the South African. While this was going on, the field behind was engaged in battles for positions. At one point, going into the tight Turn One, Pecco Bagnaia got entangled with Marco Bezzcchi’s VR46 Ducati and crashed. The defending World Champion has had a miserable start to the season and was visibly angry about the incident.
Meanwhile, Marc Maruqez quickly gathered himself and hunted down Martin who was pulling away at the front. Martin made a small error and ran wide at one of the corners, allowing Marquez to catch and pass him, amidst cheers and roars from fans in the stands.
A crash fest
A little after half race distance, the unexpected happened. It had rained just a few hours before the Sprint Race and while the track was dry, there were a few damp patches that began to catch riders out.
Brad Binder on the Factory KTM, Enea Bastianini on the Factory Ducati and Alex Marquez on Gresini Ducati crashed, almost in sync, at the same corner, while the trio were one behind the other. Aleix Expargaro crashed out of the race and his teammate Maverick Vinales on the Factory Aprilia went down as well, seemingly inexplicably. And then, Marc Marquez slid off the track. As many as nine riders crashed out of the race in the last seven minutes.
An unexpected podium
Jorge Martin cruised at the front of the field and took the chequered flag with a sizeable lead over GasGas Tech 3’s Pedro Acosta who finished second. Yamaha Factory Racing’s Fabio Quartararo, due to all the attrition, found himself in third. He fended off a late charge by KTM’s wildcard entry for the race, Dani Pedrosa who crossed the line in P4.
However, post race scrutiny of Quartararo’s Yamaha showed that his tyre pressures were lower than recommended, which led to him receiving an 8 seconds penalty and losing the third position to Dani Pedrosa.
The Sprint Race was quite unpredictable and there’s more action left as the main race will be held today at 5:30pm. IST.
