Bagnaia wins sprint, costly crash for Marquez

Pecco Bagnaia took a dominant MotoGP sprint victory ahead of title rival Jorge Martin at the Dutch TT, as Marc Marquez crashed out early on.

Factory Ducati rider Bagnaia continued a strong weekend, having led every session heading into the sprint, before taking a second consecutive sprint win after doing the same last time out at Mugello.

Championship leader Martin finished second for Pramac Ducati, 2.3 seconds behind Bagnaia, for his sixth podium in eight sprint races, while Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales finished third.

Gresini Ducati rider Marc Marquez, who is third in the standings, crashed out early on after hitting the kerb at Turn 2, having also crashed in the earlier Q2 session.

Bagnaia led off the line, with a moment for Martin extending his lead into lap two, as Alex Marquez took third from Vinales.

After Marc Marquez crashed out, Vinales retook the place from his Gresini team-mate and brother, and set about Martin, who was closing on the leader.

Bagnaia had a 0.6s lead by lap four, with a further 0.8s back from Martin to compatriot Vinales, while further back both Honda rider Luca Marini and Aprilia test rider Lorenzo Savadori saw their races end - the former due to an engine issue and the latter after crashing in the final sector.

The reigning world champion continued to build the gap to Martin and was 0.3s quicker on lap seven, the gap up to 1.1s next time round as the gap between second and third also grew to a second. By lap 11, the gap from Bagnaia to Martin was up to 1.4s, with another 1.7s back to a lonely Vinales in third, 2.8s clear of factory Ducati rider Enea Bastianini, as the top four then stretched out over the final laps.

Bastianini had made good progress, lining up 11th before charging through the field to reach fifth by lap nine, making the move on Brad Binder at Turn 5 before picking off fourth from Alex Marquez soon after at Turn 16.

A last-lap moment for Alex Marquez meant Fabio Di Giannantonio seized fifth, with Aleix Espargaro moving into sixth before a violent late crash at the fast Turn 15 - his second of the weekend.

KTM’s Brad Binder finished in sixth, while a long-lap penalty for Alex Marquez on the penultimate lap, which he did not serve, handed him a three-second demotion, dropping him to eighth behind Yamaha's Fabio Quartararo.

Franco Morbidelli took the final point for Pramac, ahead of an uncharacteristically difficult day for rookie Pedro Acosta on his Tech3 GasGas machine.

After crashing twice on Saturday morning, Marco Bezzecchi crossed the line 11th for VR46, followed by Trackhouse Racing’s Miguel Oliveira and KTM rider Jack Miller.

Joan Mir was the quickest Honda rider in 14th, ahead of Tech3 GasGas rider Augusto Fernandez and LCR rider Johann Zarco.

Trackhouse rider Raul Fernandez received a long-lap penalty for track limits violations and finished 17th. LCR’s Takaaki Nakagami and Yamaha rider Alex Rins, who crashed while running 16th at Turn 5 on lap nine before rejoining, completed the finishers.