Portuguese rider Miguel Oliveira (Aprilia) was 17th this Saturday in the sprint race of the MotoGP Thai Grand Prix, in which Spaniard Jorge Martin (Ducati) regained nine points in the race for the title.
Oliveira, who started from 20th on the grid, crossed the line 17.753 seconds behind Martin, South African Brad Binder (KTM) finished second, 0.933 seconds behind, and Italian Luca Marini (Ducati) finished third, 1.841 seconds back. .
The Portuguese rider started well, finishing in 16th place, but then dropped back to 20th.
Before the end, Miguel Oliveira began a new recovery, finishing in 17th position, although outside the scoring places (top nine).
Jorge Martin, starting from pole, saw Luca Marini take off like a rocket and catch up on the home straight, but more aggressive braking allowed the Spanish driver to maintain control and cruise to a comfortable victory.
However, with a lead of around three seconds, he lost momentum in the final laps, winning by less than one second.
This triumph left the Madrid driver nine out of 27 points behind championship leader Italian Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati), who was only seventh after finishing ninth in the race.
Bagnaia battled throughout the weekend and qualified in sixth place.
The Italian retained his championship lead but is now 18 points ahead with four main races and three sprints remaining, equivalent to 136 points.
Martin took his seventh sprint race win this year (compared to Banaya’s four). The Italian has six wins in the main competitions against Madrid’s Pramak’s three.
The Thai Grand Prix is the 17th round of the championship, with the main race taking place on Sunday.