On September 12, Marc Márquez beat polesitter Marco Bezzecchi by 1.068 seconds in the 13-lap Tissot Sprint at the San Marino Grand Prix to claim his sixth Sprint win of the season. Jorge Martín finished third, 3.538 seconds behind. Márquez outscored championship leader Martín by 5 points, reducing their gap from 19 to 14.
Passing Bezzecchi at the start, then pulling away on lap 11
Márquez started second and took the lead at Turn 1 before resisting early pressure from Bezzecchi. On a dry track, the air temperature was 27°C and the surface temperature 39°C. Their rear-tyre choices differed: Márquez used a medium and Bezzecchi a soft.
In the second half of the Sprint, Márquez led by around 1.1 seconds at one stage. Bezzecchi kept closing and cut the gap to roughly half a second with 5 laps remaining. On lap 11, Márquez set a new race lap record of 1 minute 30.734 seconds and pulled clear again, ultimately retaining the lead from the start to the finish.
Martín takes third on lap seven; Marini claims the final point
Martín rose to fourth on the first lap and passed Di Giannantonio on lap seven to enter the top three. Di Giannantonio finished fourth, with Álex Márquez fifth. Aldeguer and Acosta exchanged places several times on the third lap and lost positions in the process. Acosta eventually took sixth, Raúl Fernández seventh and Aldeguer eighth.
Marini finished ninth to claim the final available point in this Sprint for Honda. Zarco, Moreira, Morbidelli and Bagnaia were tenth through 13th. Quartararo crashed while trying to pass Moreira at Turn 14 on the third lap, then restarted and finished 21st.
The top three are separated by 22 points
Márquez, Bezzecchi and Martín earned 12, 9 and 7 points respectively. Bezzecchi’s deficit to the leader fell from 24 to 22 points, while Márquez trailed by 14. Having taken pole with a circuit record that morning, Bezzecchi secured his first top-two Sprint finish of the season.
The 27-lap San Marino Grand Prix is scheduled for September 13 at 14:00 local time, or 20:00 China Standard Time (UTC+8). Bezzecchi will again start from pole, with Márquez second on the front row.
Full San Marino Grand Prix Sprint results
| Position | Rider | Team | Gap | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Marc Márquez | Ducati Team | 19:48.519 | 12 |
| 2 | Marco Bezzecchi | Aprilia Racing | +1.068 | 9 |
| 3 | Jorge Martín | Aprilia Racing | +3.538 | 7 |
| 4 | Fabio Di Giannantonio | VR46 Racing Team | +3.968 | 6 |
| 5 | Álex Márquez | Gresini Racing | +4.348 | 5 |
| 6 | Pedro Acosta | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | +6.944 | 4 |
| 7 | Raúl Fernández | Trackhouse Racing | +7.707 | 3 |
| 8 | Fermín Aldeguer | Gresini Racing | +8.832 | 2 |
| 9 | Luca Marini | Honda Team | +11.712 | 1 |
| 10 | Johann Zarco | Castrol Honda LCR | +14.534 | — |
| 11 | Diogo Moreira | Honda LCR | +17.043 | — |
| 12 | Franco Morbidelli | VR46 Racing Team | +17.405 | — |
| 13 | Francesco Bagnaia | Ducati Team | +17.763 | — |
| 14 | Brad Binder | Red Bull KTM Factory Racing | +18.181 | — |
| 15 | Enea Bastianini | Red Bull KTM Tech3 | +18.476 | — |
| 16 | Pol Espargaró | Red Bull KTM Tech3 | +18.752 | — |
| 17 | Jack Miller | Pramac Racing | +21.113 | — |
| 18 | Toprak Razgatlıoğlu | Pramac Racing | +20.698 | — |
| 19 | Álex Rins | Yamaha Team | +21.740 | — |
| 20 | Joan Mir | Honda Team | +22.054 | — |
| 21 | Fabio Quartararo | Yamaha Team | +24.419 | — |
Razgatlıoğlu crossed the line 17th but received a one-place penalty for exceeding track limits on the final lap, leaving him 18th and promoting Miller to 17th. Their final positions therefore differ from the order of their finishing times. A total of 21 riders competed.
