Portuguese rider Miguel Oliveira (Aprilia) finished 17th on Saturday in the sprint race of the Thai MotoGP Grand Prix, in which Spaniard Jorge Martin (Ducati) took nine points in the battle for the title.
Oliveira, who started from 20th on the grid, crossed the finish line 17.753 seconds behind Martin, while South African Brad Binder (KTM) finished in second place, 0.933 seconds behind, with Italian Luca Marini (Ducati) behind third place, at 1.841 seconds. .
The Portuguese driver had a good start and reached 16th place, but eventually dropped back to 20th place.
Until the end, Miguel Oliveira started another recovery and finished in 17th place, albeit outside the scoring places (the top nine).
Jorge Martin, who started from pole position, saw Luca Marini take off like a rocket and overtake the straight at the finish, but more aggressive braking allowed the Spanish driver to maintain control and cruise to a comfortable victory.
However, after leading by about three seconds, he lost momentum in the closing laps and won by less than a second.
This victory allowed the Madrid native to make up nine of the 27 points behind the championship leader, Italian Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati), who only finished seventh after finishing ninth during the race.
Bagnaia struggled all weekend and qualified in sixth place.
The Italian retained control of the championship but now has an 18-point lead with four main races and three sprints to go, making 136 points left to win.
Martin took his seventh victory in the sprint race this year (compared to four for Bagnaia). The Italian has six wins in main events, compared to Pramac’s Madrid native’s three.
The Thai GP is the 17th round of the championship and the main race takes place on Sunday.
Source: DN
