Jorge Martin won the MotoGP Tissot Sprint race Saturday afternoon at Le Mans, in France. Riding his Aprilia Racing RS-GP26 on Michelin control tires, the Spaniard won the 13-lap race by 1.107 second.
Polesitter Francesco Bagnaia was the runner-up on his Lenovo Team Ducati Desmosedici GP26.
Championship point leader and Martin’s teammate, Marco Bezzecchi finished third.
Pedro Acosta finished the race fourth on his Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM.
Home hero Fabio Quartararo got fifth on his Monster Energy Yamaha YZR-M1 V4.
Marco Bezzecchi leads the championship with 108 points, 6 ahead of Jorge Martin who has 102 points. Pedro Acosta is third with 72 points.
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More from a press release issued by MotoGP:
Martin sprints to Saturday gold as Marc Marquez suffers DNF in Le Mans. An unreal start sees the #89 go from P8 to P1 in three corners as late drama strikes the reigning World Champion.
As starts go, that was about as good as it gets from French GP Tissot Sprint winner Jorge Martin (Aprilia Racing), who didn’t miss a beat on a dramatic Saturday afternoon at a packed-out Le Mans. The #89 strolled to a fairly dominant 12-point haul as Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) made it three Saturday podiums in the last three Grands Prix with a P2 finish. Just over a second covered the former title rivals, with 2026 World Championship leader Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia Racing) picking up a bronze medal in P3, while 2025 World Champion Marc Marquez (Ducati Lenovo Team) endured a nasty crash in the closing stages.
WHAT A START
From P8 on the grid, Martin got an absolute flyer to snatch the lead into Turn 4 after brilliantly swooping around the outside of teammate Bezzecchi, Bagnaia, and Marc Marquez through Turn 3, as polesitter Bagnaia slotted into an early P3. Home hero Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) was a P4, signalling a good getaway from the Frenchman, with Marc Marquez losing three places on the opening lap – the reigning World Champion was P5 from the middle of the front row.
On Lap 2, the #93 was then picked off by an aggressive Pedro Acosta (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing), and then at Turn 3 on Lap 3, Joan Mir (Honda HRC Castrol) had a nibble too. And it was a bite that paid off. Suddenly, Marc Marquez was P7.
MARTIN COMFORTABLE TO THE FLAG, MM93 CRASHES
Lap 3 saw Bezzecchi make a mistake at Turn 7, which allowed Pecco to sweep past his compatriot into P2. However, at this stage, Martin had got his skates on. The 2024 World Champion was over a second up the road, as Acosta then shoved his way up to P4 past Quartararo.
Having had a woeful start from P4, Fabio Di Giannantonio’s (Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team) Sprint ended prematurely with a crash at Turn 3 on Lap 5, with the Italian P14 at the time. Not what the Italian ordered from the Sprint menu.
Up front, Martin was keeping Pecco a second behind him, with Bezzecchi dropping to 1.1s behind the factory Ducati. Then came Acosta, a further second in arrears, with the battle for P5 bubbling away nicely between Quartararo, Mir, and Marc Marquez. The trio was six-tenths shy of Acosta.
On Lap 9 of 13, Martin stretched his lead to 1.3s. A lap later, it was 1.4s – then 1.5s. And with Pecco 1.5s in front of Bezzecchi, it looked like the top three were set.
The order behind wasn’t, though, and huge drama unfolded for Marc Marquez on the penultimate lap at Turn 13. The #93 suffered a huge crash – the front-end folded, which he gathered back up by digging his knee in, but that then caused the rear-end to get out of shape. This movement then spat the Spaniard over the top and subsequently out of the Sprint in a nasty way. Thankfully, Marquez was up on his feet – but that was another bruising afternoon for the World Champion, who walked gingerly back to the back of the Ducati box and then went to the medical centre for a check-up on the back of a scooter.
In less dramatic circumstances, it was a Saturday stroll to a 12-point haul for Martin, his second of the season, with Pecco and Bezzecchi picking up the silver and bronze medals. Acosta’s early moves helped him to finish P4, with Quartararo giving the French faithful something to cheer about with a gutsy P5.
Mir was a slender 0.2s away from Quartararo in P6, and just behind the top six battle was Ai Ogura (Trackhouse MotoGP Team) in P7, Spanish GP winner Alex Marquez (BK8 Gresini Racing MotoGP) in P8, and rookie Diogo Moreira (Pro Honda LCR) in P9 as the Brazilian collects his first Sprint point – and his best result to date in MotoGP.
COMING UP: GRAND PRIX SUNDAY IN FRANCE
Drama for the World Champion, Aprilia march on, and a Quartararo top five. Plenty to shout about then for the home fans at Le Mans (and the millions around the world) as we now debrief and strap in for Grand Prix Sunday at Le Mans.
