Alex Marquez wins lights-to-flag sprint race ahead of Acosta in-front of the home crowd

Marco Bezzecchi started the final Tissot Sprint of the season from pole position breaking the lap record by over a tenth of a second. Alex Marquez lined up in second and Fabio Di Giannantonio was third. Raul Fernandez came through Q1 to qualify fourth ahead of Pedro Acosta who was the fastest in partial time and Fabio Quartararo rounded out the second row. Franky Morbidelli had been fast all weekend and was in seventh, Francesco Bagnaia was down in 16th after having a problem in Q1, Jorge Martin on his return was alongside him in 17th.

The lights went out in Valencia for the first time in two years and Marquez lead the way out of turn one, Bezzecchi had a good start but was overtaken a lot in the first sector and was down in sixth by turn five. Acosta had a great start and was in second, Raul Fernandez was third ahead of Di Giannantonio and Quartararo.

On lap two at turn two both Factory Honda’s crashed out, Joan Mir lost the front trying to pass Luca Marini and the Italian was collected. Acosta was keeping Marquez honest as they were dropping Fernandez.

Jack Miller and Fermin Aldeguer made contact at turn two on lap three with the Spaniard losing some aero in the process.

Bezzecchi made his way into the top five using the horsepower of the Aprilia to overtake the Yamaha of Quartararo on the home straight. Miller had to drop three places for his move on Aldeguer.

Marquez had extended the gap to Acosta to 1.1 seconds after Acosta had a moment at turn eight. The battle for third was between Raul Fernandez and Di Giannantonio with the VR46 Ducati rider right on the back of the TrackHouse Aprilia.

On lap nine Morbidelli block passed Quartararo into turn one to move into sixth place. Miller didn’t concede the three places so he was given a long lap penalty, he took it on lap 11.

On the penultimate lap Di Giannantonio made his move on Fernandez at turn four, but Fernandez got the cutback and retook the position. the Italian then got a good drive out of turn five and overtook Fernandez into turn six and was into third place.

Marquez crossed the line to win the final Tissot Sprint of the year at Valencia. Acosta was second and moved into fourth in the championship and Di Giannantonio took the final spot on the podium with Raul Fernandez holding off Bezzecchi for fourth.

Pecco Bagnaia finished in 14th which meant that Bezzecchi was confirmed as third place in the championship. The Italian had also dropped behind Acosta into fifth place with six points separating the two.

Featured Image: Ksc Photography Services.