MotoGP Sprint Misano: Valentino Rossi’s prediction proved correct – Marc Marquez wins

Marco Bezzecchi has won four sprints in his career, but none so far this season. Starting from pole position, having set a record lap in qualifying, the Italian was in the best possible position; alongside him on the front row on Saturday afternoon were world champion Marc Marquez and youngster Fermin Aldeguer, both on Ducatis.

MotoGP icon Valentino Rossi said before the race that Bezzecchi and Marc Marquez were a step ahead of the competition in terms of speed and pace – and he was to be proved right.

When the lights went out and the riders sprinted towards the first corner, it was Marc Marquez who took the lead ahead of Bezzecchi and Aldeguer, followed by Fabio Di Giannantonio (Ducati), championship leader Jorge Martin (Aprilia) and Pedro Acosta (KTM) in the top six.

Aldeguer dropped back to sixth place on the first lap. Franco Morbidelli was also losing ground, whilst Honda youngster Diogo Moreira moved up five places to 10th.

After three laps, Marc Marquez, Bezzecchi, Diggia and Martin were bunched within a second at the front of the field, whilst a gap had already opened up behind them to the chasing pack. Fabio Quartararo, who had been by far the best of the Yamaha quartet in qualifying in 13th place, crashed whilst attempting to overtake Moreira in 11th.

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Bezzecchi was no match for Marc Marquez, and the same was true of the Italian’s pursuers from the Aprilia factory team. Whilst these two lapped at the front with a comfortable lead, the action behind them was providing plenty of excitement for the already numerous fans at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli.

‘Diggia’, Martin and Alex Márquez battled for third place. It took until halfway through the 13-lap race for Martin to get past Diggia. At this point, Bezzecchi began his chase after Marc Marquez and was able to reduce his 1.2-second deficit by tenths of a second, lap after lap. However, ‘Bez’ never got closer than half a second to the world champion; when the chequered flag fell, Marc was 1.068 seconds ahead.

Whilst Marc Márquez celebrated the 21st sprint victory of his career and was presented with a gold medal, Bezzecchi and Martin took silver and bronze. Also finishing in the points in the top nine: 4th Diggia, 5th Alex Marquez, 6th Acosta, 7th Raul Fernandez, 8th Aldeguer, 9th Luca Marini.

Marc Marquez reduced his deficit to Martin in the overall standings by five points and is now just 13 points behind the championship leader.