handed polesitter to say victory within the Catalan Grand Prix dash, whereas suffered one other crash in a troublesome day for the manufacturing unit Aprilia group.
Marquez moved to the entrance on lap 4 of 12 and established a small buffer aboard the Gresini Ducati. Whereas he got here beneath critical strain from the manufacturing unit KTM of Acosta within the last laps, he didn’t put a foot unsuitable to register his first dash win since final 12 months’s Valencia GP. Polesitter Acosta needed to accept second, whereas accomplished the rostrum for VR46.
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Firstly of the race, Acosta held the lead into Flip 1 and after transferring throughout to cowl a fast-starting Marquez. dropped down the order after beginning second, whereas made an excellent launch from fifth to seize third early on.
LCR rider Zarco even managed to overhaul Marquez for second, however the latter used the straightline pace of the Ducati to blast previous the Frenchman earlier than setting off after race chief Acosta.
The KTM rider lined the within line the primary trip as they went down the entrance straight, however Marquez minimize to the precise on the finish of lap 3 and grabbed into the lead beneath braking for Flip 1.
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Acosta couldn’t maintain tempo with the Gresini rider within the early laps and shortly fell to 3rd behind Fernandez, who had already cleared Zarco after beginning fourth on the grid.
Begin motion
Begin motion
However the Trackhouse rider additionally started to battle within the last a part of the race, permitting Acosta to repass him with 4 laps to run.
At this stage, Marquez was main the race by six tenths, a niche Acosta managed to chop by half over the following three laps.
The 21-year-old intently adopted Marquez and saved the strain up on the ultimate lap, however the latter held on by simply 0.118s to say his first dash win of the 2026 MotoGP season.
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The ultimate spot on the rostrum finally went to di Giannantonio, who handed Fernandez with two laps to go to take third place.
Fernandez nonetheless ended up as the highest Aprilia rider in fourth, whereas Zarco held on to fifth place regardless of missing straightline pace on the manufacturing unit Honda.
Ducati’s climbed from thirteenth on the grid to complete sixth forward of Morbidelli, whereas Trackhouse rider accomplished an much more spectacular restoration trip as he charged from 18th to eighth place.
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Brad Binder, Pink Bull KTM Manufacturing facility Racing, Joan Mir, Honda HRC crash
Brad Binder, Pink Bull KTM Manufacturing facility Racing, Joan Mir, Honda HRC crash
Championship chief might solely muster a single level in ninth following a nasty crash in qualifying that left him twelfth on the grid. Working as excessive as seventh early on, he struggled for pace and dropped to tenth, earlier than repassing Tech3’s on the ultimate lap to take ninth.
In the meantime, Martin’s disastrous Catalan GP weekend continued, because the 2024 champion crashing out at Flip 10 on lap 3 after climbing from ninth to sixth early on.
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Maverick Vinales’s return to MotoGP additionally ended prematurely, with the Tech3 rider pulling into the pits midway by the race with a technical downside.
Each and had been compelled into retirement following a gap lap collision. The incident was triggered by di Giannantonio and Binder coming into contact at Flip 1, which despatched the KTM rider crashing into the trail of Mir, who was taking an unusually lengthy line into the opening right-hander.
MotoGP Catalan GP – Dash race outcomes
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