Marc Marquez denies Marco Bezzecchi gold in tense Misano sprint stand-off
Saturday morning's joust went to Marco Bezzecchi of Aprilia Racing after the Italian clinched a wonderful pole at Misano, but the Tissot Sprint honours swung back into the hands of Marc Marquez of the Ducati Lenovo Team as the reigning World Champion fends off the home hero to collect a sixth gold medal of the season. He clawed more crucial championship points back on bronze medal finisher Jorge Martin of Aprilia Racing on a tense afternoon at the Red Bull Grand Prix of San Marino and the Rimini Riviera.
Slotting into maximum attack mode from lights out, Marc Marquez gobbled up the holeshot into Turn 1 and resisted Bezzecchi’s early pressure to lead across the line at the end of Lap 1. A good start behind came from Diggia and also from Championship leader Martin, who was up to P4. Just like in 2025 though, it was personal-best lap after lap between Marquez and Bezzecchi, but the reigning World Champion had started to eke out his advantage over the home-hero.
At the start of Lap 3, front-row starter Fermin Aldeguer of BK8 Gresini Racing MotoGP got his elbows out good and proper with one of his main rivals, Pedro Acosta of Red Bull KTM Factory Racing, with both of them swapping paint from Turn 2 to Turn 6 and then again up at Turn 10. Aldeguer paid the price, losing spots to teammate Alex Marquez, Acosta, and Raul Fernandez of SuperFile Trackhouse MotoGP Team in the process. Meanwhile, Fabio Quartararo of Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP failed to score having crashed on Lap 3 trying to pass Franco Morbidelli at Turn 14.
Into the second half of the Sprint, a 1’30.763s lap from Marquez leading saw him with a 1.1s lead over Bezzecchi, who despite setting a 1’30.846 on Lap 6, still didn’t have an answer to the #93 machine. Behind and doing his best to limit damage to his Championship lead, Martin was now in third, but up ahead with 5 to go, Bezzecchi had got the gap down to half a second and was still in the 1’30s whilst Marquez had dropped to the 1’31s. A lap later and the #93 was back in the 1’30s, but still, the gap hovered at half a second.
Two to go brought the fastest lap of the Sprint and a new race lap record from Marquez as he finally broke free out of Bezzecchi’s mid-Sprint clutches. Making up for his Sprint error last year, it was a lights-to-flag victory for Marc Marquez to edge closer to the Championship lead whilst Bezzecchi took P2, his first top two finish in a Sprint all season. Two Aprilias stood on the rostrum with Martin in P3, 2.4s back of his teammate.
Less than half a second back from the podium, Di Giannantonio was in fourth whilst Alex Marquez rounded out the top five. After his early dust-up with Aldeguer, Acosta came home in P6 ahead of Fernandez, Aldeguer, and Luca Marini of Honda HRC Castrol, who took the final point in the Sprint. Big names who missed out on points included Johann Zarco of Castrol Honda LCR in 10th, Diogo Moreira of Pro Honda LCR in 11th, Franco Morbidelli of Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team in 12th, and double World Champion Francesco Bagnaia of the Ducati Lenovo Team in P13.
