Jorge Martin kept his title hopes alive until the final race of the 2023 MotoGP season by carving through to win the Valencia sprint, with Francesco Bagnaia only fifth.
The Pramac Ducati pilot got a good getaway to move into third from sixth on the grid on the run to the opening bend, settling quickly in behind Bagnaia who lost the lead at Turn 2 to resurgent pole-man Maverick Vinales.
Martin then tried to move ahead of Bagnaia at Turn 11 just moments later, though both lost momentum in the maneuver and allowed KTM’s Brad Binder and Honda’s Marc Marquez past them.
Martin had managed to get the move done on his points rival though, subsequently relegating Marquez to fourth and then Vinales – who in the meantime had been passed by Binder – to third as the race edged towards its conclusion.
Binder did his best to hold off the charging Martin, though swiftly fell victim to the Spaniard thanks to an assured dive at Turn 11.
From this point on Binder did his level best to hang with Martin in a bid to snatch away supremacy, though ultimately the title charger held on to secure a ninth sprint win of the year. With Bagnaia ending up only fifth in the end, Martin heads into Sunday’s Valencia Grand Prix finale 14 points adrift.
Binder made do with second for his sixth sprint rostrum result of 2023, while Marquez also managed to move past early leader Vinales to secure only his second sprint podium finish of the season in third.
Vinales thus had to settle for fourth ahead of Bagnaia, who fended off the advances of Gresini’s Fabio Di Gianantonio by just 0.167s. The reigning world champion just needs to finish fifth in the Valencia GP to secure his second title, even if Martin scores victory.
Marco Bezzecchi was seventh for VR46 Ducati ahead of the other Gresini machine of Alex Marquez, while Pramac’s Johann Zarco completed the points scorers having dropped back from the front row on the first tour.
Jack Miller suffered a tough afternoon as he managed only 12th having made a torrid start from fourth on the grid, the KTM man just ahead of Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro and VR46’s Luca Marini.
Enea Bastianini also struggled en route to 17th ahead of Takaaki Nakagami on the next-best Honda in the field, the Japanese ace leading home LCR team-mate Alex Rins.
Fabio Quartararo failed to make the chequered flag as a result of a failed move on Bagnaia in the opening stages. The Frenchman made a blazing start to recover from 15th on the grid to sixth by the end of the opening tour, before swiftly turning his attention to reliving Bagnaia of fifth.
Under attack from the more powerful Ducati’s behind, Quartararo attempted to dive through on Bagnaia at Turn 6 – though he asked a little too much from the front of his M1 and went down into retirement.
