Saturday morning’s joust went to Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia Racing) after the Italian clinched a wonderful pole at Misano, but the Tissot Sprint honours swung back into the hands of Marc Marquez (Ducati Lenovo Team) as the reigning World Champion fends off the home hero to collect a sixth gold medal of the season, and claw more crucial championship points back on bronze medal finisher Jorge Martin (Aprilia Racing) on a tense afternoon at the Red Bull Grand Prix of San Marino and the Rimini Riviera.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Slotting into maximum attack mode from lights out, Marc Marquez gobbled up the holeshot into Turn 1 and resisted Bezzecchi\u2019s early pressure to lead across the line at the end of Lap 1. A good start behind from \u2018Diggia\u2019 and also from Championship leader Martin who was up to P4. Just like in 2025 though, it was personal-best lap after lap between Marquez and Bezzecchi but the reigning World Champion had started to eke out his advantage over the home-hero.<\/p>\n
At the start of Lap 3, front-row starter Fermin Aldeguer (BK8 Gresini Racing MotoGP) got his elbows out good and proper with one of his main rivals Pedro Acosta (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) with both of them swapping paint from Turn 2 to Turn 6 and then again up at Turn 10. Aldeguer paid the price, losing spots to teammate Alex Marquez, Acosta and Raul Fernandez (SuperFile Trackhouse MotoGP Team) in the process.<\/p>\n
Into the second half of the Sprint, a 1\u201930.763s from Marquez leading saw him with a 1.1s lead over Bezzecchi, who despite setting a 1\u201930.846 on Lap 6, still didn\u2019t have an answer to the #93. Behind and doing his best to limit damage to his Championship lead, Martin was now in third but up ahead with 5 to go, Bezzecchi had got the gap down to half a second and was still in the 1\u201930s whilst Marquez had dropped to the 1\u201931s. A lap later and the #93 was back in the 1\u201930s but still, the gap hovered at half a second.<\/p>\n
Two to go and the fastest lap of the Sprint and a new race lap record from Marquez as he finally broke free out of Bezzecchi\u2019s mid-Sprint clutches. Making up for his Sprint error last year, it was a lights-to-flag victory for Marc Marquez to edge closer to the Championship lead whilst Bezzecchi took P2, his first top two finish in a Sprint all season. Two Aprilias on the rostrum with Martin in P3, 2.4s back of his teammate.<\/p>\n
Less than half a second back from the podium, Di Giannantonio was in fourth whilst Alex Marquez rounded out the top five. After his early dust-up with Aldeguer, Acosta came home in P6 ahead of Fernandez, Aldeguer and Luca Marini (Honda HRC Castrol), who took the final point in the Sprint. Big names who missed out on points included Johann Zarco (Castrol Honda LCR) in 10th, Diogo Moreira (Pro Honda LCR) in 11th, Franco Morbidelli (Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team) in 12th and double World Champion Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) in P13. Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) also failed to score having crashed on Lap 3 trying to pass Moreira at Turn 14.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve had the teaser, but will we get the full blockbuster on Sunday? Lights out at 14:00 local time (UTC+2).<\/p>\n