Jorge Martin won the MotoGP sprint race in Qatar on Saturday at the start of the motorcycle world championship season and also secured pole position for the Grand Prix on Sunday.
Reuters/Ibrahim Al Omari
The Spanish Ducati rider relegated the South African KTM rider Brad Binder and his compatriot Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia) to second and third place in the eleven-lap sprint. The Italian Ducati star Francesco Bagnaia, who is tackling his third MotoGP World Championship title in a row, had to be content with fourth place.
In qualifying, Martin prevailed ahead of Espargaro, his Italian Ducati brand colleague Enea Bastianini and Binder. Bagnaia only starts the first race of the season from fifth position.
Qatar Motorcycle Grand Prix
MotoGP-Sprintrennen (11 Runden = 59.2 km): 1. Jorge Martin ESP Ducati 20:41.287 2. Brad Binder RSA KTM + 0.548 3. Aleix Espargaro ESP Aprilia 0.729 4. Francesco Bagnaia ITA Ducati 1.625 5. Marc Marquez ESP Ducati 1,872 6. Enea Bastianini ITA Ducati 2,322 7. Alex Marquez ESP Ducati 3,154 8. Pedro Acosta ESP KTM 4,431 9. Maverick Vinales ESP Aprilia 6,738 10. Jack Miller AUS KTM 12,670 MotoGP, Qualifying: 1. Jorge Martin ESP Ducati 1:50,789 2 Aleix Espargaro ESP Aprilia + 0.083 3. Enea Bastianini ITA Ducati 0.086 4. Brad Binder RSA KTM 0.124 5. Francesco Bagnaia ITA Ducati 0.139 6. Marc Marquez ESP Ducati 0.172 7. Fabio di Giannantonio ITA Ducati 0.230 8. Pedro Acosta ESP KTM 0. 341 9. Alex Marquez ESP Ducati 0.477 10. Maverick Vinales ESP Aprilia 0.517 Moto3, Qualifying: 1. Daniel Holgado ESP GasGas 2:02.276 2. Ivan Ortola ESP KTM + 0.265 3. Jose Antonio Rueda ESP KTM 0.320 4. Adrian Fernandez ESP Honda 0.356 5. Matteo Bertelle ITA Honda 0.396 6. Joel Kelso AUS KTM 0.415 7. Riccardo Rossi ITA KTM 0.744 8. David Alonso COL CFMoto 0.783 9. Vicente Perez ESP KTM 0.890 10. Collin Veijer NED Husqvarna 0.973
