MotoGP: Bagnaia wins the sprint of the Emilia Romagna GP and returns to within a few points of Martin

Bagnaia put on a show after his sprint victory. ANSA – DANILO DI GIOVANNI

Italian Francesco Bagnaia, currently second in the MotoGP world championship, won the sprint race of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, the 14th round (out of 20) of the season and is back to within four points of the Spanish leader Jorge Martin, second in the race on Saturday 21 September.

Starting from pole position, Bagnaia immediately handed over the reins of the race to his rival, who made a very good start from second place on the grid. But far from giving up, the Ducati rider, who remained in the wheel of the Ducati-Pramac rider, took advantage of a small mistake by the latter six laps from the end to definitively reclaim the lead of the race.

At the end of this race of only 13 laps (compared to 27 for the GP on Sunday which awards more points in the championship), Bagnaia has taken back three points from Martin and is now only four points behind his rival Spanish.

Marc Marquez at the foot of the podium

Knowing that up to 25 points are still to be distributed on Sunday, the defending champion can hope to overtake his opponent at the end of the GP. The other factory Ducati, that of Italian Enea Bastianini, finished third.

While six-time MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez (Ducati-Gresini), third overall, failed to make it off the podium. Frenchmen Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) and Johann Zarco (Honda-LCR) finished 7th and 18th respectively.