Winners and losers from first Brazilian MotoGP sprint

The Brazil MotoGP sprint was preceded by an 80-minute wait for sinkhole repairs, but outside of that looked like a Marc Marquez win we had all seen before - which is not to say it didn't entertain.

Here are our winners and losers from the 15-lap Goiania showdown.

Winner - Ducati and Marc Marquez (1st)

Another meek defeat like Buriram would've been uncomfortable to digest, but the spectre of crisis stays away - Ducati was back in charge today, spearheaded by two riders who had something extra against the rest of the competition.

Considering this is a flowing track without a major emphasis on straightline speed, and the consternation about this weekend again featuring harder-construction rubber (albeit of a different spec to Buriram), beating the best of the Aprilias by three seconds in the sprint is very clearly a significant success.

It's also received reassurance - not that there was much doubt - that the rider who dominated 2025 on its behalf is still the same guy, already fit enough to win races in his trademark way.

Marquez believes he still isn't operating at his peak - but whatever this level is, whether 80%, 90% or 95%, he's already clearly a title-level rider again.

Winner - Fabio Di Giannantonio (2nd)

Should be a loser, right? Couple of costly mistakes through the third sector - one on lap two, one on lap 13 - and he surely wins the race without both, and maybe still does without just one of them.

But I just can't come down too harshly, because I am way too encouraged by the underlying performance.

If you followed the Buriram sessions closely, you will have seen that Di Giannantonio was pretty obviously the second-fastest rider in the Ducati camp there and the only stablemate with any shot at taking on Marquez. At Goiania, this is seemingly the case again.

That's a big deal as he seeks to sort out his future for 2027.

Loser - KTM (9th, 15th, 17th and DNF)

The three KTMs in Q1 were embarrassed in that first segment - beaten by everyone else - and lead rider Pedro Acosta probably tried to do too much in Q2.

He was then limited by wheelspin off the line - and believes a finish in the P4-P6 range was on the cards otherwise.

But that's not amazing anyway, with Ducati and Aprilia seemingly unreachable here and a former KTM strength, straightline speed, now all but confirmed as a weakness.

Acosta does lead the points, but probably won't after Sunday's race given what we've seen so far.

Winner - Jorge Martin (3rd)

Martin has looked the strongest he's looked on an Aprilia - by far - this weekend, and probably should've squeezed out more in Q2.

He accurately pointed out he was already nearly three seconds back from the lead after he'd cleared Bezzecchi on lap six, and that gap was more or less maintained over the rest of the race - which is extremely promising.

It's taken so long, but this is the rider Aprilia had envisaged when it signed him.

Loser - Raul Fernandez (12th)

Aprilias were third, fourth, fifth and 12th in this race, which is rough for the guy in 12th.

Fernandez admitted he and his Trackside crew compromised the sprint in order to try the medium rear for Sunday and steal a march on his mileage-limited rivals, but they only did that because the grid position was so unpromising.

And it was a direct result of things just not coming together session after session, from a lack of rear tyre temperature on Friday to a way-too-messy Q1 that Marco Bezzecchi had proven was possible to escape with an Aprilia.

Winner - Diogo Moreira (10th)

It's far too early given this weekend has been strange and the Thai Grand Prix will go down as an outlier due to the test days that immediately preceded it - but Moreira looks like some signing for Honda.

I felt his instant three-year deal granted by the manufacturer was quite bold, but it's hard to argue with these kind of results.

Whether he's flattered by circumstances a bit here, fact of the matter is Moreira is now just 'one of the Hondas'. It's not surprising at all when he is mixing it with the other RC213Vs, but rather increasingly expected.

And this was his third MotoGP race start (across sprints and GPs). All the other Honda riders are well over the 100 mark.

Loser - Other Hondas (11th, DNF and DNF)

A lot of this was circumstantial but it goes down as a bad day for Moreira's Honda peers.

Johann Zarco looked to be having a great weekend - and can still salvage it tomorrow - but his sprint was immediately undone by having to take avoiding action for Fermin Aldeguer's 'sideways' start.

Joan Mir has been ill and lacking energy, before being "overtaken in a bad way" by Fernandez added insult to injury. "I had to open a bit the line, I went to the dirty part of the track and then I crashed," he said.

Luca Marini at least finished the race, but made no further progress after going 19th-to-11th on the opening lap, with the front tyre a concern.