Jorge Martin (Prima Pramac Racing) cut 9 points off of his deficit to Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo) today in the Thailand Tissot Sprint Race. Martin secured maximum points with the race win finishing almost four and a half seconds ahead of Bagnaia. Martin didn’t get the best start to the race. However his situation situationally improved when Bagnaia fell behind in the opening laps. Martin put his head down when he got into clean air and was able to pull away from the pack. “When I saw Binder overtake Marini, I pushed a little harder. I struggled with tire wear midway through the race, and in the end, I was at the limit, but I’m very happy; it was necessary.” said Martin.
The Battle Behind
The battle behind between Brad Binder (KTM) and Luca Marini (Mooney VR46 Racing) was absolutely sensational. The two traded moves back and forth which almost costs them both track position with a surging Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia Racing) and Marc Marquez behind them in 4th and 5th. Marquez pull a late lunge in the closing stages of the race to steal away 4th place from Espargaro. Unfortunately there wasn’t enough race left for him to catch the front runners for a potential podium.
Marquez had the following words after the race, “It was a really busy day today, it’s always like that when you go through Q1. The team did a really good job and we were able to improve, I could ride in a better way and made it to Q2. From starting on the third row we were able to stay in contact with the front group and we were able to put on a good show and have a fun race. The Sprint overall was much better than I expected, we made a good start and battled until the end. The last corner was the opposite of 2019, I attacked and made it stick instead of defending from someone else’s attack. It looks like I have the correct braking point at that corner!”
Full Sprint Race Results are Below