Marquez wins mad Jerez MotoGP sprint despite crashing
Marc Marquez took victory despite crashing in perhaps the craziest MotoGP race in recent memory, leading a factory Ducati 1-2 in the Spanish Grand Prix sprint at Jerez.
What had been a supremely entertaining but conventional contest in the dry over the first eight laps of 12 devolved into total chaos over the final four, with rain arriving suddenly and swiftly to deny a win that looked to have gone the way of Alex Marquez.
Marc had kept the lead off pole, and was aided by LCR Honda's front-row starter Johann Zarco fighting off Alex for a full lap - allowing Marc to establish a gap of a second.
That gap was very swiftly closed once Alex, the standout in dry pace here, had got past Zarco, but as Alex sized up a move for the race lead on his brother, Fabio Di Giannantonio and Raul Fernandez charged towards them - having both been delayed by Zarco's feisty defence.
Alex finally lined up and executed his move on the seventh lap, around the Aspar corner, and had just begun to build a lead of his own when the drizzle that had hung around the track turned into genuine rain.
Several riders anticipated it getting heavier, including KTM's Brad Binder - first into the pitlane, and followed almost unwittingly by Marc Marquez, who crashed his dry bike at the final corner, remounted and cut across the pit entry grass to salvage his race.
🤯 @marcmarquez93 HAS CRASHED BUT HAS MADE IT TO THE BOX TO CHANGE BIKES#SpanishGP 🇪🇸 pic.twitter.com/K41IPHPxTC
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) April 25, 2026
The skies opened up the next lap, with several falling - Alex Marquez among them - and new leader Di Giannantonio desperately tiptoeing his way into the pits.
Once things shook out, Binder - who had spent most of the 'dry race' shadowing a battle between Zarco, Pedro Acosta and Enea Bastianini - found himself in prime position to take victory, but crashed.
Pecco Bagnaia, another rider to pit a lap early and one who had been having a truly dreadful race well out of the points, inherited the lead - but was soon muscled out of the way by his team-mate, formalising the works Ducati 1-2.
Franco Morbidelli, another rider who had struggled dreadfully in the dry (and had just been slowed by a crash between Toprak Razgatlioglu and Lorenzo Savadori as the former took out the latter while both were clearing the VR46 man), suddenly scored a podium, while a remounting Binder did pick off Di Giannantonio for fourth in the end.
Fernandez, Yamaha rider Fabio Quartararo and the Honda duo of Zarco and Luca Marini rounded out the points.
The list of those crashing during the race, aside from the aforementioned. included Jack Miller (who also got a penalty for speeding in the pits), Acosta, Joan Mir and championship leader Marco Bezzecchi.
Bezzecchi was already staring at a lost race after a dreadful start and crashed during the rain phase - but remains four points clear of Aprilia team-mate Jorge Martin, who went up to second early on and then immediately exited the race with an apparent front brake fire.
Saturday's chaos means Marc Marquez and Di Giannantonio are now 24 and 26 points off the lead respectively - with the non-scoring Acosta 21 off.
Results
1 Marc Marquez (Ducati)
2 Pecco Bagnaia (Ducati) +3.050s
3 Franco Morbidelli (VR46 Ducati) +7.493s
4 Brad Binder (KTM) +8.752s
5 Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46 Ducati) +9.237s
6 Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse Aprilia) +11.958s
7 Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) +13.525s
8 Johann Zarco (LCR Honda) +14.522s
9 Luca Marini (Honda) +15.769s
10 Alex Rins (Yamaha) +15.821s
11 Enea Bastianini (Tech3 KTM) +16.190s
12 Pedro Acosta (KTM) +17.985s
13 Augusto Fernandez (Yamaha) +19.777s
14 Diogo Moreira (LCR Honda) +21.583s
15 Ai Ogura (Trackhouse Aprilia) +31.079s
16 Jack Miller (Pramac Yamaha) +44.686s
17 Fermín Aldeguer (Gresini Ducati) +58.756s
DNF Joan Mir (Honda)
DNF Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia)
DNF Alex Marquez (Gresini Ducati)
DNF Lorenzo Savadori (Aprilia)
DNF Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pramac Yamaha)
DNF Jorge Martín (Aprilia)
