Jorge Martín… again. The Pramac Racing Spanish rider is a true specialist and is in great form in MotoGP, winning yet another Sprint race, the third consecutive one. Pecco Bagnaia reached the podium in the final moments of the race, finishing behind Brad Binder, who had an amazing start!
Martín had a good start and maintained the lead, but the highlight of the first lap was Brad Binder, who gained three positions and moved into second place. Jack Miller was third and Pecco Bagnaia dropped two positions to fourth. Marc Márquez Bezzecchi, on the other hand, gained two places and was fifth, ahead of Marco Bezzecchi.
After two complete laps, all riders were setting their best times so far, but little had changed and Binder held onto second place, 0.442s behind the leader, with Miller in third, 1.022s behind his teammate, while Bagnaia was closing in on Miller. Johann Zarco was sixth after taking the position from Bezzecchi.
By the fifth lap, the positions remained mostly unchanged, and shortly after, at the halfway point, the top ten looked like this:
Márquez continued in fifth but saw his position increasingly threatened… by Bezzecchi. The Italian overtook Zarco and was on the attack, with only 0.138s separating #72 from #93. At the front of the race, Martín was now leading by over 1s over Binder while Miller had Bagnaia at 0.112s.
In the battle between Bezzecchi and Márquez, the Italian attacked from the inside but both he and the Spaniard went wide and Zarco did not waste the “gift” to reach fifth place.
Three laps to go and Bagnaia was still dangerously close to Miller but the Australian was holding on.
Aleix Espargaró was still having problems: the Aprilia rider was the first to retire from the race and everything indicated once again mechanical issues with his RS-GP.
Just before entering the final two laps, Miller succumbed to the pressure from the world champion and he moved up to third, immediately starting to pull away. In just one sector, the Italian gained three tenths on the KTM rider.
The race soon ended with Martín confirming the victory in Motegi, his third consecutive Sprint win. Binder was second and Bagnaia minimized the damage but now had “only” an eight-point lead in the championship.
