Losail (Qatar) (AFP) – Spaniard Marc Marquez (Ducati) won the sprint race of the Qatar MotoGP Grand Prix on Saturday at the Lusail circuit and will have a first chance to win his eighth title in the premier category on Sunday.

Published on: 07/11/2026 - 18:24

The Catalan, who started in second position, won ahead of the Italian Fabio Di Giannantonio (Ducati-VR46) and the heroic Spaniard Jorge Martin (Aprilia), who rode despite a fracture of the radius of his right arm at the wrist.

The race was marked by the spectacular fall of the Italian Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati), who was hit by the Spaniard Fermin Aldeguer (Ducati-Gresini) and fell very heavily on the track after going over his handlebars.

This incident, which occurred at the last corner of the first lap, caused an interruption of this sprint, and a second start was given. Marquez, second at the time of the red flag, then got off to a much better start and took the lead.

Italian Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia), who had taken pole position earlier in the day, then crashed while overtaking Marquez on lap 4. Despite contact between the two bikes, the seven-time world champion managed to stay on his wheels before racing towards victory.

"It was a strange race with this red flag. I hope Pecco (Bagnaia) is okay. My airbag went off during the impact (with Bezzecchi, editor's note) and that destabilized me a little. But apart from that, everything went very well for me. These points scored are very important", underlined the Catalan.

Marquez, who is now 49 points ahead of Martin in the championship, will have his first chance on Sunday to win an eighth crown in the premier class and match Italian legend Giacomo Agostini. For this, the only possible scenario would be a victory combined with the fact that Martin does not score any points, either by falling or by finishing beyond 15th place.

The Frenchman Johann Zarco (Honda-LCR), seventh on the grid after having achieved a solid qualification, took a very good fifth place, equaling his best sprint result this season obtained in mid-May in Barcelona.

© 2026 AFP

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