Portuguese rider Miguel Oliveira (Aprilia) left the sprint race of the MotoGP Qatar Grand Prix, the penultimate round of the championship, due to a fall on the first lap.
Oliveira, who started from 17th position, was involved in a crash with Italian Enea Bastianini (Ducati) and Spaniard Aleix Espargaró (Aprilia) while already in 11th position.
Spaniard Jorge Martin (DucatiI) won, gaining seven points in the battle for the title, leaving Italian Fábio Di Giannantonio (Ducati) in second place, at 0.391 seconds, while Italian Luca Marini (Ducati) finished third at 3,370 seconds away.
The Italian Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati), leader of the championship and who had the opportunity to become champion here in Qatar, only finished fifth and saw Martin trail just seven points, postponing the title decision to the next round, the last, in Valencia. .
The two had a fierce duel in the first two rounds, with mutual contact. First Bagnaia, with a quick response from Martin.
“I knew I had the potential to win, but you never know. I went wide in a corner, but I managed to recover and even managed to keep the rear tire under control. Winning today was super important,” the driver emphasized. from Madrid, who won a sprint for the eighth time this year.
As for Miguel Oliveira, this was the tenth retirement of the season in 19 Grands Prix, between sprint and feature races, the sixth of which was due to a fall.
With these results, Bagnaia maintains the lead in the championship, with 417 points, against Martin’s 410.
Even if he wins the main race on Sunday and gets 25 points and Martin doesn’t score, he can best remain behind on 32 points, while in the last race, in a week, there are still 37 points to be won. time.
Miguel Oliveira retained 16th place with 76 points.
The main race takes place on Sunday.
Source: DN
