Jorge Martin, Japanese MotoGP, 29 September 2023
Jorge Martin flew to a third successive MotoGP sprint race win at the Mobility Resort Motegi to further close on series leader Francesco Bagnaia, who claimed third.
The Pramac Ducati man made a good start from pole position to get the holeshot into Turn 1 ahead of the fast-starting KTM duo of Jack Miller and Brad Binder, who slipped by Bagnaia before they braked for the opening bend.
Martin immediately looked to break clear from the pack as he pushed early, Binder swiftly diving through on team-mate Miller with s bold move at Turn 11 on the first lap as he looked to challenge for the leadership.
The South African matched Martin across the opening half of the encounter and looked to potentially have enough to stage an attack in the latter stages, though Martin ultimately began to edge clear.
He eventually took the chequered flag after 12 laps to secure his third-straight sprint race victory in commanding style by 1.4 seconds over Binder.
Bagnaia meanwhile struggled to match the lead pair and instead had his hands full trying to relieve Miller of third, a task which looked eminently more possible as the race entered its final quarter.
With the factory Ducati rider looking like he had a little more rear grip left at the end, Bagnaia eventually forced Miller into a mistake at Turn 11 with just a couple of circulations remaining to move into the rostrum spots.
He eventually secured third across the line, albeit a distant five seconds adrift of title rival Martin, thus seeing his points gap reduced by five markers to just eight heading into Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix.
Miller held off a closing Johann Zarco to keep hold of fourth, while Marco Bezzecchi came out on top of a tight battle for sixth with Marc Marquez’s Honda towards the end of the test.
Fabio Di Gianantonio ended up in the points for Gresini Ducati in eighth, while Maverick Vinales claimed the final point in ninth after team-mate Aleix Espargaro retired to the pits with a technical issue while running seventh towards the end.
Fabio Quartararo’s Saturday failed to improve in the sprint having already failed to escape the opening segment during qualifying. The factory Yamaha racer dropped from 14th on the grid to 18th on the opening lap, before only being able to recover to 15th by the end.
He at least ended up as the best-placed of Yamaha’s contingent, with Franco Morbidelli shadowing his team-mate home in 16th while the wild-carding Cal Crutchlow was classified 18th after serving a long-lap penalty after picking up too many tack limits warnings.
The Brit did run at a similar pace to his teammates however and took the chequered flag just under seven seconds behind Quartararo despite his punishment.
Joan Mir struggled to make much progress after qualifying 15th on the other Repsol Honda and took 13th at the end behind Raul Fernandez’s RNF Aprilia and GasGas duo Pol Espargaro and Augusto Fernandez.
Michele Pirro was 19th on the sister factory Ducati as he continues to deputise for Enea Bastianini, while Alex Rins’ LCR Honda replacement Stefan Bradl completed the 20 finishers.
Keyword: Martin edges towards point lead with Japan sprint win ahead of Binder