{"id":939431,"date":"2026-10-24T16:20:17","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T16:20:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/939431\/"},"modified":"2026-10-24T16:20:17","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T16:20:17","slug":"motogp-australian-gp-marquez-wins-sprint-to-take-championship-lead-after-martins-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/939431\/","title":{"rendered":"MotoGP Australian GP: Marquez wins sprint to take championship lead after Martin’s crash"},"content":{"rendered":"

Marc Marquez<\/a> moved back into the lead of the MotoGP standings with a fine victory in the Australian Grand Prix sprint, while his title rival Jorge Martin<\/a> crashed out from second place.<\/p>\n

The two Spaniards engaged in an epic battle for victory at Phillip Island on Saturday after the track completely dried out following earlier rain showers.<\/p>\n

But just after the halfway point, Martin dumped his\u00a0Aprilia while chasing Marquez for the top spot, handing a 10-point championship lead to the Ducati rider.<\/p>\n

Alex Marquez<\/a> therefore finished second for\u00a0Gresini, while Fabio di Giannantonio<\/a> completed a podium lockout for Ducati in third.<\/p>\n

At the start of the race, Marquez got the\u00a0holeshot from pole position, while Martin jumped from fourth to second to put himself directly behind his title rival.<\/p>\n

Alex Marquez initially went in the other direction from second on the grid, before\u00a0repassing Johann Zarco<\/a> and Martin in quick succession on lap two to emerge as a potential\u00a0rear-gunner for his brother.<\/p>\n

\"Race <\/p>\n

Race start<\/p>\n

Photo by: Robert Cianflone \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

But Martin quickly dispatched the\u00a0Gresini rider and then launched an attack on the reigning world champion during lap three, making the move stick at Turn 10.<\/p>\n

However, just as it appeared that\u00a0Aprilia had an upper hand over Ducati in dry conditions, Martin ran wide at Turn 4 on lap five, allowing Marquez back through into the lead.<\/p>\n

Martin passed Marquez again into Turn 1 on the following lap, only to cede the position again with an error at Turn 4.<\/p>\n

The battle between the pair reached its head on lap eight, with the pair exchanging position at least three times in the first five turns – allowing even Alex Marquez to join the fight.<\/p>\n

Just after dropping back to second, Martin threw it all away at Turn 8, sliding out into the gravel at 180km\/h. The Spaniard was put on a stretcher by the marshals and taken to the medical centre, where doctors later declared him unfit for Sunday’s grand prix.<\/p>\n

With Martin out, Marquez had no trouble keeping his brother at bay, taking the\u00a0chequered flag with a three-tenth margin to secure his ninth sprint win of the season.<\/p>\n

\"Marc <\/p>\n

Marc Marquez, Ducati Team<\/p>\n

Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

Di\u00a0Giannantonio recovered from a low-key qualifying that left him eighth on the grid to finish third, securing his second successive sprint win.<\/p>\n

With Martin crashing and\u00a0Trackhouse rider Raul Fernandez pulling into the pits due to pain, Aprilia\u2019s charge was led by Marco Bezzecchi<\/a>, who dropped to 12th on the opening lap before climbing back to fourth.<\/p>\n

Pedro Acosta<\/a> wound up fifth for KTM after running as high as third, while Ai Ogura<\/a> finished sixth after starting 12th.<\/p>\n

Acosta\u2019s team-mate Brad Binder<\/a> enjoyed a strong run to seventh, while home hero Jack Miller<\/a> was again Yamaha\u2019s best-placed rider this weekend as he bagged two points in eighth.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

LCR\u2019s Honda Diogo Moreira<\/a> rounded out the points scorers in ninth, while the top 10 was completed by Iker Lecuona<\/a>, who was standing in for the injured Fermin Aldeguer<\/a> at Gresini.<\/p>\n

Zarco\u2019s brilliant qualifying effort was undone by a technical problem, the Frenchman retiring on lap four while running inside the top six.<\/p>\n

MotoGP Australian GP sprint race results<\/p>\n

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– The Autosport.com Team<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Marc Marquez moved back into the lead of the MotoGP standings with a fine victory in the Australian…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":939432,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,27784,4280,5745,505912,806,805,803,804,126450,85],"class_list":["post-939431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-gp","tag-marc-marquez","tag-motogp","tag-motogp-australian-gp-marquez-wins-sprint-to-take-championship-lead-after-martins-crash","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-phillip-island-grand-prix-circuit","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939431","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=939431"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939431\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/939432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=939431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=939431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=939431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}