exit turn one in fourth.
Bagnaia dived past Martin at
the end of the back straight, but
his time at the front was short-
lived as Bezzecchi pushed past
into the lead at the last corner
on the first lap.
Within four laps, Bezzecchi
was 2.5 seconds over Martin,
Bagnaia and Marquez with Fa
-
bio Quartararo (Monster Energy
Yamaha) holding down fifth
place. Marquez didn't last much
longer, crashing a lap later at
turn one in a low-speed tip-off,
but the real drama came with
eight laps left, a moment that
signaled a major swing in the
2023 title chase.
VOLUME ISSUE SEPTEMBER , P83
MOTOGP
SPRINT RACE
Bezzecchi landed on pole, but
he didn't get past the first corner
before being rammed by team-
mate Luca Marini. Marini went
flying and fractured his col-
larbone, but Bezzecchi stayed
on and proceeded to scythe
through the field, finishing an
excellent fifth after posting
fastest lap after fastest lap, an
indication of what was to come
on Sunday.
Turn one, lap one, had an
-
other separate incident when
Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda) and
Pol Espargaro (GasGas Tech3)
tangled, sending both out of the
race.
Up front, it was Jorge Martin
doing his usual Sprint Race
antics, controlling the pace over
Bagnaia, with Marc Marquez
(Repsol Honda) having his best
ride of the season in third.
Brad Binder was trailing him
in fourth on the factory KTM but
had there been an extra lap, per
-
haps neither would have been
in the podium hunt as the flying
Bezzecchi was charging back,
only to run out of time.
Martin thus took the win and
clawed back a few points on
Bagnaia, but more was to come
on Sunday.
SUNDAY
GRAND PRIX
Bezzecchi was in no mood to re-
peat Saturday's antics and sped
away from pole, but he was
boxed out at turn one by Mar-
tin and Bagnaia, with Joan Mir
(Repsol Honda) having by far his
best race start of the season to
36 JOAN MIR
DNF-5 MOTOGP
"I am super happy with our perfor-
mance over the weekend and of
course to finish in fifth position is a
big boost for us," Joan Mir said. "The
team and I did a great job to under-
stand the bike more, how you need
to make the lap time and be fast this
weekend. On the other hand, we had
a small thing in the end of the race
that meant I lost ground to Fabio and
we dropped back. Finally in the end
we were able to push and try to catch
Binder after I almost crashed. It was
a big save! But yeah, a really nice
race overall and I have enjoyed my
time in India."
MYOWNRACE
