Enea Bastianini dominated the sprint race at the Thai Grand Prix from start to finish, taking the lead early and managing to pull away for the victory.
Jorge Martín took a risk on the first corner and ended up falling to P5. As the laps went by, the current leader of the overall standings caught up first with Marc Márquez and then with ‘Pecco’ Bagnaia, earning second place.
Bagnaia tried to put pressure on his rival on the final laps, but was unable to beat him, finishing third and losing two more points as the gap increases to 22 in the standings.
The points were completed by Marc Márquez, Álex Márquez, Franco Morbidelli, Marco Bezzecchi, F Fabio Di Giannantonio and Brad Binder.
Sprint race comeback by Joan Mir
There was a thirteenth place for Joan Mir in one of his best sprint races of the season. The Spaniard managed to get a great start and moved up six positions, riding alongside Jack Miller and Johann Zarco in a battle for eleventh position. The pair eventually got the better of him, but Mir was nevertheless able to make progress in the contest.
Luca Marini suffered from starting further back on the grid. The Repsol Honda Team rider was 21st. Despite struggling on the initial laps, he was able to finish 19th.
On Sunday at 2:00 pm local time, the Thai Grand Prix will be held in Buriram.
Thailand GP: Sprint Race Results (13 laps)
RIDER | TEAM | TIME |
1. Enea Bastianini | DUCATI | 19:31.131 |
2. Jorge Martín | DUCATI | +1.357 |
3. ‘Pecco’ Bagnaia | DUCATI | +2.372 |
4. Marc Márquez | DUCATI | +5.402 |
5. Álex Márquez | DUCATI | +10.140 |
6. Franco Morbidelli | DUCATI | +11.087 |
7. Marco Bezzecchi | DUCATI | +11.538 |
8. Fabio Di Giannantonio | DUCATI | +11.680 |
9. Brad Binder | KTM | +13.692 |
10. Fabio Quartararo | YAMAHA | +14.483 |
11. Jack Miller | KTM | +18.397 |
12. Johann Zarco | HONDA | +18.544 |
13. Joan Mir | REPSOL HONDA | +19.265 |
14. Raúl Fernández | APRILIA | +19.688 |
15. Aleix Espargaró | APRILIA | +19.988 |
16. Augusto Fernández | GASGAS | +21.298 |
17. Àlex Rins | YAMAHA | +21.413 |
18. Takaaki Nakagami | HONDA | +23.400 |
19. Luca Marini | REPSOL HONDA | +23.979 |
20. Maverick Viñales | APRILIA | +29.474 |
21. Lorenzo Savadori | APRILIA | +39.389 |
General Standings
RIDER | TEAM | TIME |
1. Jorge Martín | DUCATI | 433 |
2. ‘Pecco’ Bagnaia | DUCATI | 411 |
3. Marc Márquez | DUCATI | 351 |
4. Enea Bastianini | DUCATI | 343 |
5. Brad Binder | KTM | 193 |
6. Pedro Acosta | GASGAS | 181 |
7. Maverick Viñales | APRILIA | 171 |
8. Franco Morbidelli | APRILIA | 155 |
9. Fabio Di Giannantonio | DUCATI | 152 |
10. Marco Bezzecchi | DUCATI | 137 |
11. Aleix Espargaró | APRILIA | 136 |
12. Álex Márquez | DUCATI | 130 |
13. Fabio Quartararo | YAMAHA | 93 |
14. Jack Miller | KTM | 71 |
15. Miguel Oliveira | APRILIA | 71 |
16. Raúl Fernández | APRILIA | 66 |
17. Johann Zarco | HONDA | 40 |
18. Takaaki Nakagami | HONDA | 28 |
19. Álex Rins | GASGAS | 23 |
20. Augusto Fernández | YAMAHA | 21 |
21. Joan Mir | GASGAS | 20 |
22. Pol Espargaró | KTM | 12 |
23. Luca Marini | REPSOL HONDA | 9 |
24. Dani Pedrosa | KTM | 7 |
25. Stefan Bradl | HONDA | 2 |
Statements
Joan Mir
«I really enjoyed the Sprint today, I was able to recover a lot on the brakes and had a lot of really good battles with riders like Quartararo, Miller and Aleix. The first laps especially were really good and I felt really strong. Of course, everything was complicated by Qualifying, which has been the case a lot this year. In practice this morning I felt really good, then with the new tyre in Q1 we struggled and started very far. To come from 19th to fight for the top ten is something we have to focus on and be happy about».
Luca Marini
«We did not have our best day of the year today, our level from Friday to Saturday remained the same and when we put in a new tyre we aren’t able to gain that much performance. In the past races we were more competitive and today Mir and Zarco both had more pace, so we need to keep trying some different things. I think the experiment with the bike setup this weekend has shown it’s not the direction to follow. Tomorrow with the ‘standard’ setting I hope to be more competitive and fight with my teammate.»