Silverstone Sprint: Martin leads the Aprilia show, Marquez falters

Following a red flag during Moto2 qualifying, which caused a ten-minute delay, the premier class finally got underway for the first sprint race after the summer break of just over three weeks. The Aprilia riders were the stars of the show in the sessions leading up to Saturday’s race. In both free practice and Q2, the four RS-GP riders finished in the top five. Only Fabio Di Giannantonio managed to make a neon-yellow statement for Ducati on both occasions.

Whilst Marc Márquez held his own in sixth place on the grid, his team-mate struggled, finishing 16th. When the track was opened for the formation lap, the riders initially made their way around the 5,900-metre circuit at a snail’s pace. Reason: the high-speed circuit is a fuel guzzler, so saving fuel was the order of the day.

The starting grid: Alongside Jorge Martin, Raul Fernandez and his Trackhouse team-mate Ai Ogura got ready. With 14 points, Ogura is also the rider posing the greatest threat to championship leader Martin. Row 2 in England is occupied by Di Giannantonio, Marco Bezzecchi and world champion Marc Márquez. His brother Alex had to settle for 7th place after a strong start to the event. “AM73” was ahead of the VR46 Ducati ridden by Morbidelli and the fastest KTM ridden by Pedro Acosta. Surprisingly, stand-in rider Iker Lecuona (Gresini-Ducati) had secured 10th place.

All the riders in the top nine started the warm-up lap on soft rear tyres, this time at a significantly slower pace. The race got underway shortly after 4 pm – with the question of whether Marco Bezzecchi, who was still carrying an injury, would be able to keep up the pace over the full distance.

Jorge Martin, who had dropped back to the rear of the field during the warm-up lap, made perfect use of his pole position. The championship leader crossed the line ahead of Fernández, Ogura and Bezzecchi. On the very first lap, Di Giannantonio moved up to third place and Marc Márquez also overtook Bezzecchi.

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Silverstone: International Livestream

MotoGP World Championship

09.08.2026 - 10:35

Things went badly for the reserve riders. First Cal Crutchlow crashed, and at the end of lap 1, Lecuona also went off. At the front, Jorge Martin was going flat out. By the end of the second lap, the number 89 was half a second ahead of Ai Ogura, who was closely followed by Di Giannantonio. A little further back were Marc Marquez, Bezzecchi, Fernandez and Alex Marquez. Pedro Acosta followed some way behind.

On lap 4, the next crash. Trackhouse ace Fernández slipped out in Turn 4, leaving just three RS-GP bikes in the race. Jorge Martín, by contrast, was in commanding form, extending his lead over championship and race rival Ogura to 0.7 seconds. Behind ‘Diggia’ in third place, a gap of two seconds had already opened up to Marc Marquez. Marco Bezzecchi was now pushing hard. At the end of lap 5, ‘Bez’ overtook the world champion, and Alex also had the better pace, but couldn’t get past at first. However, on lap 6, ‘AM73’ overtook him to move into fifth place.

Behind Acosta in P7, Joan Mir (Honda) held off Morbidelli and rookie Moreira. Toprak Razgatlioglu, the second rookie, was in 19th place behind KTM stand-in rider Pol Espargaro.

With four laps to go, Fabio Di Giannantonio also dropped back with tyre problems; Marco Bezzecchi was now third, meaning there were once again three Aprilias at the front. Martin maintained a steady lead of just over 0.7 seconds.

Whilst Acosta was also closing in on Marc Marquez, the top three had taken shape. Amazingly, Marc Márquez’s pace dropped so sharply on that lap that even Acosta overtook him. Just metres earlier, Alex Márquez had passed Di Giannantonio. And as Jorge Martín entered the final lap with a 1.5-second lead, Marc Márquez also had to concede to Mir and Morbidelli!

Jorge Martin won the Silverstone Sprint ahead of Ai Ogura and Marco Bezzecchi. The ‘Martinator’ extended his World Championship lead by three points. Behind the successful Aprilia trio, Alex Marquez finished as the top Ducati rider. Marc Marquez narrowly secured the final World Championship point ahead of Diogo Moreira.