Alex Marquez wins British GP sprint to end brother Marc's winning streak
SILVERSTONE, England :Gresini Racing's Alex Marquez ended his brother Marc's record streak of sprint victories when he capitalised on a mistake to win the British Grand Prix sprint on Saturday and close in on his sibling in the world championship.
Ducati's Marc had won six straight sprints in the first six rounds of the season while Alex had finished second in all sprints, but this time it was a role reversal as the younger brother gave Gresini the sprint win.
Marc lost the lead when he went wide early on, with the Spaniard shaking his head as he rejoined, allowing Alex to move into the lead and take the chequered flag while Fabio Di Giannantonio was third for VR46 Racing.
The sprint victory moved Alex to within 19 points of Marc in the riders' championship ahead of Sunday's race.
"Super happy... We did everything perfectly," Alex said after he claimed his first gold medal of the season.
"When he (Marc) went a little bit wide, I said, 'Okay, now I need to make my pace, I need to go until the end'. It was a really good feeling with the bike. So everything was nice, everything was perfect."
Fabio Quartararo had broken a lap record for the third straight MotoGP weekend when he claimed a hat-trick of poles and when the lights went out, the Frenchman had the perfect start off the line.
But Marc made a bold move on the outside to overtake and gain two places to move up to second.
By the end of the first lap, a clinical Marc found his way through to move into the lead. But Alex seized his chance when his elder brother went wide on a turn as he took the lead and did not look back.
While Quartararo has dominated qualifying sessions this season, his Yamaha does not have the race pace as Ducati's Francesco Bagnaia also overtook him to move up to third while the Frenchman managed to keep Di Giannantonio at bay.
Quartararo kept closing the door by braking late on turns but Di Giannantonio finally managed to win that battle to move up to fourth and set his sights on a fight with Bagnaia for the final podium spot.
The two Italians traded positions three times on three corners before Di Giannantonio eventually moved up to third while Bagnaia had one eye on his compatriot and another on Aprilia's Marco Bezzecchi behind him.
Up front, Marc decided to back off from his brother with two laps to go as Alex extended his lead to more than a second before taking Gresini's first sprint victory of the season.
Bagnaia lost places at the end of the sprint and finished sixth - behind Bezzecchi and French Grand prix winner Johann Zarco, a huge blow as it leaves him 56 points behind his team mate Marc in the standings.
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