Marc Marquez won the MotoGP Tissot Sprint race Saturday afternoon at Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli, in San Marino. Riding his Lenovo Team Ducati Desmosedici GP26 on Michelin control tires, the seven-time MotoGP World Champion won the 13-lap race by 1.068 seconds.
Marco Bezzecchi was the runner-up on his Aprilia Racing RS-GP26 and his teammate Jorge Martín finished third.
Fabio Di Giannantonio crossed the finish line fourth on his Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team Ducati Desmosedici GP26.
Alex Marquez got fifth on his BK8 Gresini Racing Ducati Desmosedici GP26.
Jorge Martin leads the championship with 263 points, 14 ahead of Marc Marquez who has 249 points. Marco Bezzecchi is third with 241 points.
MOTOGP worldstanding
More, from a press release issued by MotoGP:
Marc Marquez denies Bezzecchi gold in tense Misano Sprint stand-off. 22 points cover the top three as the reigning World Champion does the business on Saturday afternoon.
Maximum attack mode from lights out, Marc Marquez got the holeshot into Turn 1and resisted Bezzecchi’s early pressure to lead across the line at the end of Lap 1. A good start behind from ‘Diggia’ and also from Championship leader Jorge Martin (Aprilia Racing) 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 eek out his advantage over the home-hero.
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.
Into the second half of the Sprint, a 1’30.763s from Marquez leading saw him with a 1.1s lead over Bezzecchi, who despite setting a 1’30.846 on Lap 6, still didn’t 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 1’30s whilst Marquez had dropped to the 1’31s. A lap later and the #93 was back in the 1’30s but still, the gap hovered at half a second.
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’s mid-Sprint clutches. Making up for his Sprint error last year, it was 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.
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.
We’ve had the teaser but will we get the full blockbuster on Sunday? Lights out at 14:00 local time (UTC+2).
MotoGP Sprint results from Misano
