What a show! Blessed was the invention of the Sprint race, a diabolical short race format, that of Portugal at 12 laps, which left Pecco Bagnaia as the first winner in history, a famished champion who never has enough, and Marc Márquez on the podium, third classified, after a spectacular performance in which he marked a brutal overtaking of two to Miller and Oliveira. Second was a brave Jorge Martín, defeated in the last lap by Pecco.
The exit was slit, with the knife between the teeth. Marc Márquez held the privileged starting position from pole position that he had achieved three and a half hours earlier, followed by the two Ducatis of Bagnaia and Jorge Martín, and soon by Enea Bastianini, who jumped from sixth to fourth place.
The leadership of Repsol Honda did not last long, as he himself suspected. On lap 2 Bagnaia and Martín already passed him, with a better pace. Bastianini's threat vanished due to a fall from the Ducati rider, swept away by his compatriot Marini. Enea fractured his right clavicle and will miss Sunday's race and most likely Argentina's next week.
So Marc was left in a provisional podium position, increasingly off the hook from Bagnaia and Martín.
Who arrived disheveled was Jack Miller with his KTM. The Australian had a snack at Oliveira, Márquez, his former teammate Bagnaia, and reached Jorge Martín, who had taken command on the fourth lap of 12.
The Ducati Pramac from Madrid pulled hard and kept Miller's pulse, who for a moment was first. The position was recovered by Martín (v.8), which opened a small gap of 4-5 tenths with three laps to go. The front group was compact, with seven riders in one second, until Viñales closed.
The best of the first MotoGP Sprint race was yet to come: on lap 11, when it seemed that Marc Márquez was giving up before Miller and Oliveira, and that he was going to settle for fifth position, ahead of the two Aprilias, he gave the lunge of champion with a brutal double overtaking. The man from Cervera surpassed the Portuguese's Aprilia and the Australian's KTM with a mischievous interior taking advantage of the fight between them.
In the last two laps, Martín and Bagnaia broke away and set off to decide the winner. It was the Italian who took advantage of a light wash from the Madrid native to achieve victory and pocket the first 12 points in Sprint history.
From behind, Oliveira caressed the podium in front of his audience when he managed to snatch third position from Márquez, but slipped in, going long; an error that left the man from Cervera third with his first 7 points in the World Cup.
And tomorrow in the long race (3:00 p.m.) he starts first, reinforced with confidence. “I used all of my physique to compensate, to enter the corners skidding a bit, it's very tiring, where I could recover was braking with a lack of rhythm, taking many risks. I thank the team because we were up late seeing the details of the race. Now we have that confidence, that has helped me a lot. The start of the season is not bad", commented the Repsol Honda rider.
