Marquez. Meanwhile, brother
Marc Marquez had a clean get-
away to take the holeshot, with
Martin second and Acosta third.
Initially, Bagnaia held his
ground in fourth, staying ahead
of Alex Marquez, but struggled
to close in on the leading trio.
A wide moment at turn five
dropped him to sixth, just ahead
of Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM
Factory Racing). Subsequent
scrappy moments saw Binder
pass Bagnaia in the battle for
sixth place.
podium visit since Phillip Island
last year. Third went to Deniz
Oncu (Red Bull KTM Ajo).
Moto3 saw the 400th Grand
Prix race winner crowned as
Jose Antonio Rueda (Red Bull
KTM Ajo) triumphed for the first
time over Collin Veijer (Liqui
Moly Husqvarna Intact GP) and
Luca Lunetta (SIC58 Squadra
Corse), the Italian teenager tak
-
ing his first GP podium in third.
MOTOGP SPRINT RACE
Marc Marquez (Gresini Racing
MotoGP) secured pole by 0.840 of
a second, the largest dry-weather-
qualifying margin since 2011.
He took the lead right from
the holeshot and dominated the
race, taking his first Sprint win
nearly three seconds ahead of
Martin (Prima Pramac Racing)
and Acosta.
At the start, Bagnaia's bike
snapped sideways off the line as
he struggled for grip, and he ironi
-
cally almost collided with Alex
place finishes. His Sunday finish
came as a result of the Bagnaia/
Marquez crash.
In Moto2, Jake Dixon (CF
-
Moto Inde Aspar Team) had
another superb day with pole,
and the race win ahead of Tony
Arbolino (Elf Marc VDS Rac
-
ing Team), who made his first
VOLUME ISSUE SEPTEMBER , P85
but went slightly off line into the last
corner and just lost it. The bike was
really unforgiving in those areas, es-
pecially when you go in and commit
to the corner."
36 JOAN MIR
18TH/15TH MOTOGP
"Today in the race we tried something
really, really different on the bike to
try and fix some issues we have been
having," Mir said. "The sort of change
that you can't normally make during
a weekend. It was not the direction to
follow, but it has helped us to under-
stand a lot of things. It's something
really good that we were able to try
and the information we have will
help in the long term. I am struggling
mostly on corner entry where I was
strong before so this is one thing to
work on as well."
MYOWNRACE
It's all about to
get very messy as
Alex Marquez (in
blue) and Pecco
Bagnaia prove two
Ducatis will not
go into one.
