BEZZECCHI WINS SPRINT RACE ON LAST LAP MOVE
Marco Bezzecchi and rookie Fermín Aldeguer gave us a fantastic show in the Sprint race. The Aprilia rider Bezzecchi came back from a bad start to pass Aldeguer on the very last lap and take the win, with Raul Fernandez finishing third for his first MotoGP podium.
Bezzecchi didn’t launch well from pole position, and Luca Marini briefly led from P6. But Marini went wide, letting Aldeguer, Fernandez, and Pedro Acosta through. At Turn 10 on lap one, Marc Marquez and Alex Rins touched. Both went wide, and Marquez was given a Long Lap penalty for it, dropping him to P13 after serving it on lap three.
Up front, Aldeguer was leading from Acosta, with Fernandez third, Marini fourth, and Bezzecchi in fifth. Soon after, Acosta crashed out of P2 at Turn 1, giving Aldeguer a 1.8-second lead. Bezzecchi moved up to third and started chasing Fernandez.
Once in clean air, Bezzecchi set the fastest lap of the race. With eight laps left, he was still two seconds behind Aldeguer. On lap 8, he passed Fernandez at Turn 10 for P2, cutting the gap to 1.9s. A lap later, he was just 1.2s behind after setting another fastest lap, showing incredible pace after dropping to P8 at the start.
With two laps to go, Bezzecchi had closed the gap to half a second. At the start of the final lap, it was down to 0.3s. At Turn 10, he dived past Aldeguer, even though he ran a little wide. The rookie fought back through Turn 12, but Bezzecchi held strong and crossed the line first.
Behind them, Fernandez secured P3, with Alex Marquez in a lonely P4 and Joan Mir in P5. Marini slipped to P6, Marc Marquez fought back to P7 after his penalty, and the last points went to Franco Morbidelli and Fabio Di Giannantonio in P8 and P9. Francesco Bagnaia had a tough day, finishing 14th and almost 30 seconds off the win.
Even with a tough Sprint for Ducati Lenovo Team, they still managed to secure the Teams’ Championship title. Big congratulations to them, and they’ll be hoping for a stronger result in Sunday’s main race.
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