Alex Marquez lands Silverstone MotoGP sprint as big guns misfire

SILVERSTONE, United Kingdom — Alex Marquez woke up after a “sleepy” start to hold off a late charge from Marco Bezzecchi and win the British MotoGP sprint race at Silverstone on Saturday.

Maverick Vinales completed the podium as world champion Francesco Bagnaia suffered a rare day off on his factory Ducati finishing down the field.

“It’s great to start the season again with a sprint win,” said Marquez, with MotoGP resuming after its summer break.

“I knew before that today was the day to win the sprint,” added the Ducati-Gresini rider.

“I was a little bit sleepy in the first corner but later on I said I need to push as I was feeling really good.”

Bezzecchi, riding for Valentino Rossi’s VR46 Ducati-satellite team, had battled atrocious conditions to claim pole in a rain-drenched qualifying in the morning.

His runner-up spot moved him up to second in the riders standings, 27 points behind Bagnaia, ahead of Sunday’s main event, the ninth round of the championship.

Bezzecchi had been overtaken at turn two on the opening lap by Jack Miller’s KTM as Bagnaia dropped from fourth to the middle of the field.

Marquez took control at the front on lap two of 10, around half a second clear of Bezzecchi as Miller’s charge fizzled out.

Marquez had doubled his advantage at the half-way stage yet Bezzecchi knuckled down, inching ever closer to set up a tense final lap but Marquez held on for his first win sprint win.

“I kept focussed and was able to finish very close to him [Marquez] so I’m very happy and hoping for a dry day tomorrow,” Bezzecchi said.

Bagnaia was not the only big name to fail to deliver, with six-time world champion Marc Marquez, the winner’s brother, down in 18th and 2021 titleholder Fabio Quartararo beating one home in 21st.

Bezzecchi battles 

to pole

Bezzecchi battled atrocious conditions to claim pole for the British MotoGP at a soaking Silverstone on Saturday.

Jack Miller and Alex Marquez join the Italian on the front row of Sunday’s race.

Riding for Valentino Rossi’s VR46 Ducati-satellite team Bezzecchi was taking back-to-back poles after heading the grid at the Dutch MotoGP before the summer break in June.

He is lying third in the riders’ standings, 36 points behind world champion Bagnaia, who posted the fourth fastest time on his factory Ducati to start on the second row.

‘Pecco’ was second in the timesheets before crashing. He rushed back to his garage in a frantic bid to get back out on the circuit but time ran out for the 2022 Silverstone winner.

After setting the fastest time with a handful of minutes left of qualifying Bezzecchi promptly joined the long list of riders to hit the deck in the worst weather of the season so far.

After dusting himself down the 24-year-old, who won in the wet in Argentina, said: “I’m okay, it was a big crash, I didn’t expect to crash but I aquaplaned. We made this pole so I’m very happy.”

An indication of how tricky the conditions were came from the 18second-difference between Bezzecchi’s lap time of 2mins 15.3590s and the circuit record of last year’s pole-sitter Johann Zarco of 1:57.767.

One man distinctly unhappy was France’s 2021 world champion Fabio Quartararo.

The Yamaha factory rider failed to fire at a track where he won two years ago to qualify in last place — his worst qualifying result since graduating to MotoGP in 2019.

“That wasn’t the start of the day we were expecting. I made a mistake and had to stop in the pits. The tyres were cold and I was only able to complete one lap,” reported Quartararo.