Jorge Martín started the MotoGP season with a victory in the Sprint race of the Qatar GP in Losail. The 2023 runner-up led from start to finish, with no opponents of his caliber. Miguel Oliveira finished 13th.
Not long after, Bagnaia overtook Espargaró to reach the podium places. Eight laps from the end, Fabio Di Giannantonio (Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team/Ducati) suffered a crash in which he was narrowly avoided being run over by some opponents, but came out unscathed. However, he couldn’t avoid being the first to retire from a race in 2024.
In his first race for Gresini and on a Ducati, Marc Márquez wasn’t satisfied with secondary results and gradually recovered to join the front group. He was even in fourth place at one point, but Espargaró regained the position.
At the front, Martín was always solid, with Binder in second. Two laps from the end, Espargaró returned to third, swapping places with Bagnaia, and managed to hold onto the position.
Until the end, nothing changed in the main positions, and Martín showed that he continues to be a Sprint race specialist with the victory. Binder was second at 0.548s, while Espargaró completed the podium ahead of Bagnaia. Marc Márquez finished fifth and Bastianini was sixth. Rookie Pedro Acosta (Red Bull GasGas Tech3/KTM) scored points with eighth place. As for Oliveira (Trckhouse Racing/Aprilia), after starting from 14th, he never managed to make significant advances and finished in 13th.
