Marc Márquez wins the 'sprint race' and will have match ball this Sunday in Qatar

Marc Márquez will have match ball this Sunday at the Qatar Grand Prix. By the hair. To leave the Lusail circuit with a new world championship under his arm, the one from Cervera needs to win and Jorge Martín leaves the race that will be held this Sunday completely empty.

The one from San Sebastián de los Reyes signed on a Saturday to take off his hat and climbed to the third step of the podium, after reaching second place, a position that would have prevented Márquez's advance surge, passing Cervera's for a moment and Fabio Di Giannantonio, finally, overtaking him almost at the last breath.

Marco Bezzecchi, initially the third in contention, went to the ground in a maneuver in which his motorcycle touched Marc's, in an incident considered a race incident by the judges, and his chances of becoming champion have become even more remote than they already were in the beginning.

The sprint race of the Qatar Grand Prix had a future very different from what is now common in MotoGP. In the end, he had two outings. Right in the early stages of the second lap of the first of them, after Bezzecchi had made a great start, with Márquez on his heels and with Jorge Martín who was not entirely comfortable, Pecco Bagnaia spectacularly went to the ground after the front wheel of Fermín Aldeguer's mount touched the rear of the Italian's. The initial yellow flag was soon replaced by a red one, which forced a new race to be held, in this case with 10 laps instead of the 11 initially planned. And, in this second one, to tell the truth, the man from Cervera was completely implacable: he put himself first from the beginning, he defended himself tooth and nail every time Bezzecchi or Martín tried to take first place from him and finally added a new victory on Saturday that brings him a little closer to his eighth MotoGP World Championship, which would in turn be the tenth in his entire career.

«It was a strange race, with the red flag, and I hope Pecco is okay, because it was a very ugly fall. In turn one, after that touch with Marco, due to the impact the airbag even inflated, that's why Jorge was able to attack me, because it takes a while until it deflates, but, despite that, everything was perfect. In the end, I was able to mark distances, control the race and get 12 points, which are very important," said the man from Cervera. «I am very proud of the work we have done. I broke my wrist 12 days ago, but, thanks to the adrenaline, I was able to push and got to fight with Marc. In the end, I couldn't take it anymore, but being on the podium tastes like victory to me," confessed Jorge Martín, capable of finishing third after starting from eleventh place on the starting grid. «I love this circuit, this Saturday's race was wild. I am very impressed with what Jorge has done. In the end, we couldn't catch Marc, but we are also very happy with the result," Fabio Di Giannantonio finally declared, who climbed to the second step of the podium.