Marc Márquez claims the championship lead after third consecutive win at Misano
Marc Márquez claimed his third consecutive win at the Misano World Circuit and now stands at the front of the standings for the first time this season. The two Aprilia riders struggled in San Marino with Marco Bezzecchi crashing out of the race and Jorge Martín losing multiple positions.
Sprint report
Marc managed another amazing start off the line and overtook Bezzecchi before the first corner. After this pass, the reigning world champion led every lap but Bezzecchi made sure to challenge him almost every lap, the two of them exchanging fastest lap times constantly.
However, there was nothing the Italian could’ve done in the end, as Marc’s choice of medium tyres offered him a late race advantage.
Behind them, Martín managed an early pass on Fermín Aldeguer to go up to P4 and began hunting down Fabio Di Giannantonio. By the end, the Spaniard completed Saturday’s podium and maintained his position as the championship leader going into Sunday.
Aldeguer dropped multiple positions after his front-row start and gave fans a momentarily exciting battle against KTM rider Pedro Acosta. Aldeguer failed to defend his position and was ultimately passed by Acosta, Álex Márquez and Raúl Fernández to only finish in P8.
Race report
Bezzecchi managed a good start to defend against Marc and maintain his lead but the Italian’s race came to an early end as he crashed at Turn 12. Therefore, Marc inherited the lead from the Italian rider.
More crashes followed, with Jack Miller out on the same lap and Diogo Moreira crashing in Turn 4 of Lap 3. On Lap 6, Francesco Bagnaia also crashed out of the race while Joan Mir was forced to retire from the race due to technical issues on Lap 8.
Aldeguer failed to take advantage of his front-row start once again with Martín overtaking him and running in second place after his teammate’s crash. Meanwhile his teammate, Álex Márquez, had a great start, making up five positions before the end of the first lap.
Álex managed to overtake Acosta moving in P3 and the KTM rider was forced to defend against Aldeguer. A three-way fight emerged with Acosta between the two Gresini bikes.
Martín managed to overtake Marc to briefly claim the lead of the race on Lap 7 and Álex was able to close in on the leading duo.
However, only five laps later, Marc reclaimed the lead, overtaking Martín at Turn 6 and leaving the Aprilia rider to defend against both Álex and Acosta. From this point on, no one was able to challenge the reigning world champion’s lead.
Martin ended up losing two more positions at Turn 6 against both Gresini riders, leaving the Spaniard to finish in P5 and giving up the championship lead.
On Lap 18 Álex Rins also retired due to technical issues and Johann Zarco crashed with just three laps remaining, meaning that only 14 riders crossed the finish line this Sunday.
With five laps remaining, Aldeguer began to close in on Acosta with the two Spanish riders battling for the last step of the podium, but the KTM rider managed to defend his position.
The fight for the title continues next week at the Austrian Grand Prix. Do not miss any of the exciting racing awaiting at the Red Bull Ring and tune in on Sunday, September 20, from 14:00 local time (12:00 GMT)!
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