Portuguese rider Miguel Oliveira (Aprilia) was fifth in the sprint race of the Aragon Grand Prix, round 12 of the season, this Saturday, in a race won by Spaniard Marc Marquez (Ducati).
Oliveira, who started from eighth place on the grid, crossed the line 11.749 seconds behind the winner, with Spaniard Jorge Martin (Ducati) second in 2.961 seconds and Pedro Acosta (GasGas) third in 6.694 seconds.
It was Marquez’s first win in a sprint race, a new feature in the MotoGP World Championship introduced last season.
Jorge Martin’s second position allowed the Madrid rider to move up to the championship team in exchange for Italian Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati), who did not advance beyond ninth place.
Marquez dominated the 11 laps from start to finish, making the best start from pole position. Not since his injury in 2020 has Marquez dominated a Grand Prix this overwhelmingly in the second race of the season, and was fastest in free practice and qualifying this morning.
He was ahead of the field at the start, gaining an advantage with each lap.
“I still tried to go with him, but it was impossible. Hopefully I can improve tomorrow.” [domingo] “to be able to discuss winning the main race,” Jorge Martin said at the end.
Marc Marquez was relieved by this first victory: “It’s nice to win in front of such a crowd. At first I was very tense, but then I started to relax. It’s a very important result, the first victory in sprint races.”
Miguel Oliveira also had a good start, finishing fifth. He was overtaken by Bagnaia on the first lap, but recovered on the fifth, not losing any ground.
With these results, Martin, who started this round five points behind, becomes the new leader with 279 points, three more than Bagnaia, who dropped to second place.
The Portuguese driver retained 13th place, now scoring 60 points.
The main race of the Aragon Grand Prix will take place on Sunday.