Marc Marquez overcomes poor start to win Italian Grand Prix sprint
Ducati's polesitter Marc Marquez overcame a botched start to win the Italian Grand Prix sprint ahead of his brother Alex and team mate Francesco Bagnaia on Saturday to maintain his dominance in the shorter format this season.
It was Marc's eighth sprint victory in nine rounds this season as he extended his lead in the riders' championship to 35 points over second-placed Alex while Bagnaia is now 98 points behind.
Marc had become the first rider to claim 100 career pole positions when he broke the lap record earlier on Saturday but the Spaniard was seen fiddling with a setting near his handlebar just before the lights went out.
He had less than a second to look up and see the lights go out, executing a poor launch off the line as a result and falling outside the top four while Bagnaia moved into the lead on one of his favourite circuits.
"I know what happened but because the launch control was in, then I take off, then I put it in again and then I lost a lot of positions," Marc said.
"But we gave a good show out there. We won the sprint race. That was not the main target. The main target was to try not to lose a lot of points.
"But all these Italian fans enjoyed the show because the comeback was super nice."
Marc recovered by the end of lap one to sit behind Bagnaia and Alex as the three Ducatis went side-by-side heading into turn one to the delight of the roaring crowd before Alex squeezed through unscathed on his Gresini bike to take the lead.
Marc then locked horns with home favourite Bagnaia to overtake him before using his brother's slipstream to take the lead on lap four when going at more than 350 kph.
Once he had clean air in front of him, Marc took complete command of the sprint and set the pace as he slowly extended his lead over Alex to more than a second while Bagnaia desperately held on to third while also receiving track limit warnings.
As Marc took the chequered flag ahead of Alex, Bagnaia managed to keep Maverick Vinales at bay and the KTM rider came fourth while Fabio Di Giannantonio of VR46 Racing completed the top five. REUTERS
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