South African rider Brad Binder secured his first sprint race win of the 2023 season in dramatic fashion after starting P15. Binder moved up 12 positions on the first lap in a stunning effort to pass the majority of the pack. By lap three Binder had taken the lead and started to put space between him and the pack. After a late charge Marco Bezzecchi and Luca Marini completed the podium, finishing +0.072s and +0.877s behind Binder respectively. Bezzecchi had a minor incident early on in the race at turn 5 where he was forced wide and rejoined the track in 8th place.
Championship leader, Francesco Bagnaia, whom started in 3rd could only secure a 6th place finish after struggling to find pace in the late sprint race stages. Luckily for Bagnaia, his championship lead was not relinquished and he will go into the grand prix race with the championship lead. His finish saw him extend his championship lead by 1 point over Maverick Viñales.
Disaster struck for Aleix Espargaro after early success in free practice and qualifying. Espargaro ended up suffering from a low side crash which eliminated him from the race. Joan Mir did not complete the first lap leaving him out of sports scoring contention. Espargaro was not injured in the crash, and should be good to go for the grand prix race. Pole sitter Alex Marquez was not able to capitalize on his P1 start. After an early mistake Marquez salvaged a P5 finish.