Spaniard claims fifth straight sprint win to narrow gap to leader Bagnaia in Buri Ram
At the Thailand Grand Prix on Saturday, Jorge Martin led the entire way to win his fifth consecutive sprint race of the year and secure pole position for the main event on Sunday.
The effort cut the deficit to Francesco Bagnaia, the leader of the championship, to eighteen points.
Less than a second separated Brad Binder and Luca Marini at the finish. Bagnaia, a Ducati rider, qualified on the second row but ended up eighth.
With three laps remaining in the 26-lap grand prix on Sunday, Bagnaia now has 369 points, and he will start sixth once more, with pole sitter Martin currently on 351 after taking the sprint victory with twelve points.
Martin set a new lap record on Saturday, which gave him a boost. He started the weekend 27 points behind the reigning champion.
At the Australian Grand Prix, Martin lost control toward the conclusion of the race and missed out on the podium. The Spaniard claimed he was attempting to save his tires.
“But after seeing Brad and Luca (catching up), I thought maybe it’s time to back off,” he remarked in a Chang International Circuit post-race interview.
Bagnaia, who started sixth, dropped to ninth at the conclusion of the first lap as Martin, having gotten off to a brilliant start, held off Marini and took the lead into turn one.
Binder began the race in fifth place on the grid, but he was able to pass Aleix Espargaro of Aprilia and Marco Bezzecchi of VR46 Racing to take third place.
With five prior podiums in sprint races this season, Binder has had greater success. When Marini battled to get the most out of his tires in hot track conditions, the KTM rider eventually passed Marini to take second place.
With six laps remaining, Martin increased his lead to 1.5 seconds. Although Binder was able to close the gap, the Spaniard maintained total control as he crossed the finish line for his eighth sprint victory of the year.
“We’ll take second place,” a beaming Binder remarked. “Luca was a difficult one to get past at first. I had trouble with that.” Martin then performed a marvelous job.
Marc Marquez of Honda, the six-time MotoGP champion who will be joining Gresini Ducati in the upcoming season, qualified eighth on the grid and finished fourth.
READ MORE https://www.motogp.com/en/calendar/2023/event/thailand/365ba002-a6d9-4268-add2-083d41ee2342
Starting grid
| Driver | Grid | Qual time | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | J. MartínDucati·#89 | 1 | 1:29.287 | |
 | L. MariniDucati·#10 | 2 | 1:29.425 | |
| A. EspargaróAprilia·#41 | 3 | 1:29.461 | |
| M. BezzecchiDucati·#72 | 4 | 1:29.483 | |
 | B. BinderKTM·#33 | 5 | 1:29.496 | |
| F. BagnaiaDucati·#1 | 6 | 1:29.527 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Á. MárquezDucati·#73 | 7 | 1:29.600 | |
| M. MárquezRepsol Honda·#93 | 8 | 1:29.622 | |
| M. ViñalesAprilia·#12 | 9 | 1:29.701 | |
 | F. QuartararoYamaha·#20 | 10 | 1:29.707 | |
| J. ZarcoDucati·#5 | 11 | 1:29.923 | |
| A. FernándezKTM·#37 | 12 | 1:30.077 | |
| F. Di GiannantonioDucati·#49 | 13 | 1:29.850 | |
| R. FernándezAprilia·#25 | 14 | 1:29.914 | |
 | J. MillerKTM·#43 | 15 | 1:30.096 | |
 | T. NakagamiRepsol Honda·#30 | 16 | 1:30.115 | |
| P. EspargaróKTM·#44 | 17 | 1:30.124 | |
| F. MorbidelliYamaha·#21 | 18 | 1:30.158 | |
| J. MirRepsol Honda·#36 | 19 | 1:30.263 | |
 | M. OliveiraAprilia·#88 | 20 | 1:30.442 | |
| E. BastianiniDucati·#23 | 21 | 1:30.677 |
