A heroic Martín complicates the alirón of Márquez, who wins the 'sprint' of the Qatar GP after a controversial touch with Bezzecchi

If MotoGP never lacks something, it is spectacle and emotion. In every curve and until the end. Under the lights on the closed night of Lusail, the Qatar GP sprint race concentrated all the ingredients that elevate high-speed motorcycling: terrifying falls, duels to the limit, controversial touches and several confrontations between the contenders for the title, without any concession. Also a phrase that is repeated in one of every three races since he competes: victory for super champion Marc Márquez, so close to his eighth title - the tenth in all categories - and at the same time so far from achieving it this Sunday (5:00 p.m., Dazn).

A heroic act by his great rival for the crown, Jorge Martín, complicates his championship effort. The man from Madrid managed to climb from eleventh position on the grid to third place, even temporarily becoming the leader of the race, 14 days after breaking the radius in his right arm at Phillip Island. Anyone else would be watching the race from the couch at home, with their arm in a cast. The tenacity of the Aprilia rider is the only thing that keeps alive a World Championship that is dyed red by Márquez and Ducati, although it now requires a difficult, but not impossible, carom: the Catalan (411 points) will be champion if he wins the long race and the Madrid native (362) does not score (16th or worse with only 18 bikes on the grid).

The Ducati rider, who sent the third contender for the title to the ground and author of a record pole position, the Italian Marco Bezzecchi who is now virtually eliminated at 79 points, does not see himself winning the championship that would allow him to break the tie with Valentino Rossi and equal Giacomo Agostino in Qatar, a scenario more heartless than ever given the latent threat of the conflict between the United States, Israel and Iran. “This Sunday is not the time,” he slipped after his tenth Saturday victory this season. But you never know. “These 12 points have been a gift, because I didn't have the rhythm to get them,” he added, without going too far into the controversy of the day.

The good race this Saturday was the second, since the first ended under a red flag with a single lap completed due to a serious accident between Pecco Bagnaia and Fermín Aldeguer, who hit Márquez's teammate and sent him into the air. Despite the strong impact against the asphalt and the enormous scare, removed from the gravel on a stretcher, the two-time MotoGP champion with Ducati saved the day with a double fracture in his right foot, transported conscious and out of danger to a hospital in Doha.

At the 10-lap restart, Márquez beat Bezzecchi in acceleration and defended himself against his attacks tooth and nail. So much so that both collided in the first corner of the track on lap 4. The defender of the crown, who was leading despite having a worse pace than his rival for victory, went a little long in braking at the finish line, and the man from Rimini tried to sneak inside, a place where the man from Cervera did not expect it. The impact was at such a speed that it even activated the airbag of the '93 monkey, a juggler to avoid falling. It was Aprilia's 72 that ended up in the ditch in despair, an image that has been repeated several times this year.

The stewards reviewed the action and left it in a racing situation, something that did not please the leaders of the Noale brand. But there were many more battles and they still remained. Martín, who in two laps had slipped through the middle of the field, from tenth to fourth place, saw the train crash in his head in the front row and took the opportunity to put the bike into Fabio Di Giannantonio and then into Márquez himself, constrained a couple of corners by the airbag.