Miguel Oliveira withdraws from Qatar sprint race due to fall

Portuguese rider Miguel Oliveira (Aprilia) withdrew from the sprint race of the Qatar MotoGP Grand Prix this Saturday, the penultimate round of the championship, due to a fall suffered on the first lap.

Oliveira, who started from 17th position, was involved in an accident with Italian Enea Bastianini (Ducati) and Spaniard Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia) when he was already in 11th position.

Spaniard Jorge Martin (DucatiI) won and collected seven points for the title, leaving Italian Fabio Di Giannantonio (Ducati) in second place, 0.391 seconds behind, and Italian Luca Marini (Ducati) in third, 3.370 seconds behind.

Italian Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati), the championship leader and with a chance to become champion here in Qatar, was only fifth and saw Martin trailing by just seven points, postponing the title decision until the next and final round in Valencia. .

In the first two laps they had a fierce duel with touches between them. First Banyaya, to which Martin immediately responded.

“I knew I had the potential to win, but who knows. I missed the turn, but I managed to recover, even managing the rear wheel. The victory today was very important,” emphasized the Madrid driver, who won the sprint for the eighth time this year.

As for Miguel Oliveira, it was his 10th retirement of the season out of 19 Grands Prix between the sprint and the main races, the sixth due to a fall.

Thanks to these results, Bagna maintains the lead in the championship with 417 points against 410 for Martin.

Even if he wins the main race on Sunday and takes 25 points and Martin doesn’t score, the best he can do is stay behind on 32 points, with 37 points still to come in the final race a week later. time.

Miguel Oliveira maintained 16th place with 76 points.

The main race will take place on Sunday.