Pecco Bagnaia wins the Tissot Sprint in Barcelona as Martin takes third place

Francesco Bagnaia started where he needed to be in the Tissot Sprint in pole position, he had Aleix Espargaro in his final MotoGP weekend starting alongside him in second with Marc Marquez rounding out the front row in third. Championship leader Jorge Martin started in fourth, he needed to score two more points than Pecco Bagnaia to win the MotoGP World Championship.

The lights went out and it was Enea Bastianini who took the holeshot into turn one, but Bagnaia took the lead at turn two, Martin was in third. Marc Marquez and Pedro Acosta made contact, Marquez was seventh and Acosta was 23rd and retired at the end of lap one.

Martin block passed Bastianini at turn one to move into second place on lap three. On the following lap Bastianini repaid the favour and retook second from Martin.

It was deja vu as Martin once again block passed Bastianini into turn one and shut the door on The Beast who had to hold off Franky Morbidelli and Alex Marquez.

Alex Marquez passed Morbidelli into turn one then Espargaro passed Morbidelli into turn four.

On the penultimate lap Alex Marquez went wide at turn ten and Espargaro inherited fourth position.

Bastianini on the final lap overtook Martin into turn five to move into second place.

Pecco Bagnaia crossed the line to win the final Tissot Sprint of the season and to keep his title hopes alive, Bastianini held on to second with Martin in third.

Martin leads the championship by 19 points heading into the final race of the season. If Martin finishes in ninth or better he will be champion, if Martin fails to score points Bagnaia has to finish first or second place.

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