{"id":173102,"date":"2025-09-27T15:49:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T15:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/173102\/"},"modified":"2025-09-27T15:49:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T15:49:08","slug":"francesco-bagnaia-dominates-sprint-marc-marquez-closes-in-on-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/173102\/","title":{"rendered":"Francesco Bagnaia dominates sprint, Marc Marquez closes in on title"},"content":{"rendered":"

Factory Ducati rider Francesco Bagnaia<\/a> bounced back from recent woes to score a dominant victory in the Japanese Grand Prix sprint, while his team-mate Marc Marquez<\/a> inched closer to the title with a podium finish.<\/p>\n

Bagnaia was never threatened during the 12-lap contest at Motegi, leading every single lap from pole position to clinch his first sprint win since last year\u2019s Barcelona finale.<\/p>\n

Marquez didn\u2019t have the pace to fight at the front and finished almost two seconds behind Bagnaia, but with his brother Alex Marquez<\/a> failing to score in the sprint, he heads to Sunday\u2019s grand prix with one hand on the title.<\/p>\n

At the start of the race, Bagnaia pulled away cleanly from pole position to lead the factory Honda of Joan Mir<\/a>, with Pedro Acosta<\/a> making a rapid launch from fourth on the grid to snatch third place from Marc Marquez into Turn 5.<\/p>\n

Further back, reigning champion Jorge Martin<\/a> lost control of his Aprilia under braking for Turn 1, taking out his Aprilia team-mate Marco Bezzecchi<\/a> in a nasty crash.<\/p>\n

With the yellow flags quickly cleared, Bagnaia continued to extend his advantage over the chasing pack, building a buffer of six tenths by the time Acosta grabbed second from Mir on lap 2.<\/p>\n

Although Acosta was expected to be a more potent threat than Mir, Bagnaia had no trouble keeping him at bay, pulling out a lead of 1.5s in the first five laps.<\/p>\n

The two-time MotoGP champion continued to cruise at the front, taking the top spot by 1.842s in his most competitive showing of the 2025 season.<\/p>\n

Marquez recovered from a slow first lap to grab second behind Bagnaia after passing both Acosta and Mir at the final corner in quick succession.<\/p>\n

While the 32-year-old initially struggled to overtake Mir, running wide on a number of occasions, he eventually managed to complete a block pass on lap 8.<\/p>\n

The overtake on Acosta with three laps to go was much easier as the KTM rider struggled in the latter part of the sprint.<\/p>\n

With Alex Marquez finishing a distant 10th at the end of a tough race, the Ducati star can wrap up the title on Sunday if he doesn\u2019t concede more than six points to his brother.<\/p>\n

\"Francesco <\/p>\n

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati Team<\/p>\n

Photo by: Toshifumi Kitamura \/ AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Acosta hung on to third place at a track where he scored his maiden pole last year, while Mir likewise stayed in fourth to celebrate a big points haul for Honda on its home turf.<\/p>\n

Fifth place went to Franco Morbidelli<\/a> on the VR46 Ducati, while Fabio Quartararo<\/a> was classified sixth on the factory Yamaha.<\/p>\n

Luca Marini<\/a> made it a double points finish for the factory Honda team in seventh, while the final points went to Trackhouse duo Raul Fernandez and Ai Ogura<\/a> in eighth and ninth respectively.<\/p>\n

Gresini\u2019s Alex Marquez, who had qualified eighth after advancing from Q1, dropped to ninth on the opening lap before tumbling to 10th place.<\/p>\n

MotoGP Japanese GP – Sprint results:<\/p>\n

Photos from Japanese GP – Qualifying and Sprint<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Francesco<\/p>\n


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\"Marc<\/p>\n


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\"Pedro<\/p>\n


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\"Franco<\/p>\n


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\"Fabio<\/p>\n


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\n Japanese GP, Saturday, in photos
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\"Francesco<\/p>\n


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\n Japanese GP, Saturday, in photos
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\"Johann<\/p>\n


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\n Japanese GP, Saturday, in photos
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\"Jack<\/p>\n


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\"Santi<\/p>\n


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\"Alex<\/p>\n


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\"Miguel<\/p>\n


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\n Japanese GP, Saturday, in photos
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\"Marc<\/p>\n


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\"Alex<\/p>\n


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\"Fans\"\/<\/p>\n


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\n Japanese GP, Saturday, in photos
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\"Jack<\/p>\n


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\n Japanese GP, Saturday, in photos
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\"Fabio<\/p>\n


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\n Japanese GP, Saturday, in photos
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\"Francesco<\/p>\n


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\n Japanese GP, Saturday, in photos
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\"Marc<\/p>\n


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\"Takaaki<\/p>\n


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\n Japanese GP, Saturday, in photos
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\"Marc<\/p>\n


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\n Japanese GP, Saturday, in photos
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\"Marc<\/p>\n


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\n Japanese GP, Saturday, in photos
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\"Marc<\/p>\n


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\n Japanese GP, Saturday, in photos
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\"Marc<\/p>\n


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\"Ai<\/p>\n


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\n Japanese GP, Saturday, in photos
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\n <\/a>
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\"Takaaki<\/p>\n


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\n Japanese GP, Saturday, in photos
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\"Fabio<\/p>\n


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\n Japanese GP, Saturday, in photos
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\"Fabio<\/p>\n


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\"Pedro<\/p>\n


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\"Alex<\/p>\n


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\"Joan<\/p>\n


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\n Japanese GP, Saturday, in photos
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\"Fabio<\/p>\n


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\n Japanese GP, Saturday, in photos
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\"Joan<\/p>\n


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\"Francesco<\/p>\n


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\n Japanese GP, Saturday, in photos
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\"Joan<\/p>\n


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\"Francesco<\/p>\n


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\"Marc<\/p>\n


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\n Japanese GP, Saturday, in photos
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\"Joan<\/p>\n


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\"Detail<\/p>\n


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\"Marc<\/p>\n


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\"Marc<\/p>\n


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\"Marc<\/p>\n


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\n Japanese GP, Saturday, in photos
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\"Marc<\/p>\n


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\"Ai<\/p>\n


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\"Luca<\/p>\n


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\n Japanese GP, Saturday, in photos
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\"Jorge<\/p>\n


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\"Johann<\/p>\n


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\n Japanese GP, Saturday, in photos
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\"Marc<\/p>\n


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\n Japanese GP, Saturday, in photos
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\"Maverick<\/p>\n


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\"Marco<\/p>\n


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\n Japanese GP, Saturday, in photos
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\"Francesco<\/p>\n


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\"Marco<\/p>\n


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\n Japanese GP, Saturday, in photos
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\"Marco<\/p>\n


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\n Japanese GP, Saturday, in photos
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\"Jorge<\/p>\n


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\n Japanese GP, Saturday, in photos
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\"Jorge<\/p>\n


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\n Japanese GP, Saturday, in photos
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\"Jorge<\/p>\n


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\n Japanese GP, Saturday, in photos
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\"Fabio<\/p>\n


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\n Japanese GP, Saturday, in photos
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\"Marc<\/p>\n


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\n Japanese GP, Saturday, in photos
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\"Marc<\/p>\n


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\n Japanese GP, Saturday, in photos
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\"Pedro<\/p>\n


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\n Japanese GP, Saturday, in photos
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\"Marc<\/p>\n


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\n Japanese GP, Saturday, in photos
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\"Miguel<\/p>\n


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\n Japanese GP, Saturday, in photos
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\"Jack<\/p>\n


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\n Japanese GP, Saturday, in photos
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\"Jack<\/p>\n


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\n Japanese GP, Saturday, in photos
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\"Raul<\/p>\n


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\n Japanese GP, Saturday, in photos
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\"Francesco<\/p>\n


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\n Japanese GP, Saturday, in photos
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\"Ducati<\/p>\n


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\n Japanese GP, Saturday, in photos
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\"Francesco<\/p>\n


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\n Japanese GP, Saturday, in photos
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\"Francesco<\/p>\n


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\n Japanese GP, Saturday, in photos
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\"Francesco<\/p>\n


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\n Japanese GP, Saturday, in photos
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\"Marc<\/p>\n


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\n Japanese GP, Saturday, in photos
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\"Francesco<\/p>\n


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\n Japanese GP, Saturday, in photos
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\"Pedro<\/p>\n


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\n Japanese GP, Saturday, in photos
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\"Francesco<\/p>\n


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\n Japanese GP, Saturday, in photos
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\"Pedro<\/p>\n


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\n Japanese GP, Saturday, in photos
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\n <\/a>
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\"Pedro<\/p>\n


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\n Japanese GP, Saturday, in photos
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\"Pedro<\/p>\n


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\n Japanese GP, Saturday, in photos
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\"Francesco<\/p>\n


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\n Japanese GP, Saturday, in photos
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\n <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Factory Ducati rider Francesco Bagnaia bounced back from recent woes to score a dominant victory in the Japanese…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":173103,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,107978,112657,5745,112656,806,805,803,804,85,107979],"class_list":["post-173102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-japanese-gp","tag-marc-marquez-closes-in-on-title","tag-motogp","tag-motogp-japanese-gp-francesco-bagnaia-dominates-sprint","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-sports","tag-twin-ring-motegi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}