Another great Saturday for Jorge Martín, with the Prima Pramac Racing rider winning once again and benefiting from the misfortune of Francesco Bagnaia, who was forced to retire from the race due to problems with his bike. Marc Márquez took another podium, as did Maverick Viñales.
Here’s the long-awaited sprint race at Le Mans: 13 laps, with Jorge Martín in pole position, Pecco Bagnaia and Maverick Viñales on the front row, while the second row is made up of Fabio Di Giannantonio, Marco Bezzecchi and Aleix Espargaró.
And at the start the highlight was… Bagnaia, but not for the best reasons: he went from second to 15th! Bezzecchi was second and Espargaró third. Marc Márquez was fourth, Viñales fifth and Jack Miller sixth. Brad Binder, who started from 22nd place, was already 14th.
🚦Lights out in the #TissotSprint 🚦
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) May 11, 2024
A perfect start from @88jorgemartin as @PeccoBagnaia completely botches it and drops down the field 😱#FrenchGP 🇫🇷 pic.twitter.com/KlUJGbcvnk
In no time at all, Martín gained more than half a second on Bezzecchi, while Bagnaia left the circuit and headed for the team garage. Something must have happened to his motorbike.
It just keeps getting worse for @PeccoBagnaia 😔
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) May 11, 2024
After dropping out of the points he runs off and enters the pits to retire ❌#FrenchGP 🇫🇷 pic.twitter.com/AyQIiPBGYF
Shortly afterwards Joan Mir crashed, not seriously, and was the first casualty of the Sprint at Le Mans. Martín was leading by 0.776s over Bezzecchi, with M. Márquez in third after Espargaró had completed the first long lap of the two he was allocated after making a mistake at the start of the race. Viñales was fourth and Espargaró fifth.
The race quickly reached the halfway point and Martín was still in control, now 1.017s ahead of Bezzecchi, Marc Márquez was 2.334s off the leader at a stage in the race when Álex Rins crashed at turn 8.
Marc Márquez was getting closer and closer to Bezzecchi and in the space of a lap he recovered 0.5s. On the rise was Enea Bastianini, already in fifth position, the fastest rider on the track at the time.
With four laps to go, luck seemed to be on Martín and Marc Márquez’s side, unlike Bezz, who crashed at turn 9 and was out of the race!
BEZ HAS CRASHED OUT! 💥💥💥
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) May 11, 2024
High drama with 4 laps to go! 😱#FrenchGP 🇫🇷 pic.twitter.com/hEgrMaooYf
Martín was now 2.113s ahead of Márquez. Viñales was the new third-placed rider and Pedro Acosta, in sixth, lurked in the top five as he was 0.372s behind Espargaró.
Acosta meanwhile saved a crash (again) but lost crucial time to Espargaró, who thus seemed to hold on to fifth place at Le Mans.
Unsurprisingly, the race ended shortly afterwards and Martín celebrated again in the Sprint!