Marc Marquez continued his winning streak as he cruised to victory in the Hungarian GP sprint by two seconds on Saturday night to pad his championship lead.
It was a seventh straight Sprint victory for the Spaniard, who has also won the last six longer Sunday grand prix races on his factory Ducati.
Fabio Di Giannantonio, an Italian with the VR46 Ducati satellite team was a distant second at Balaton Park, followed by his team-mate and compatriot Franco Morbidelli third.
Photo: EPA
Marquez, a six-time world champion, started the race from pole position.
“I felt someone really close on the first corner, from there I quickly found a fast rhythm,” Marquez said. “I’m very happy with this victory.”
He extended his lead in the world championship to 152 points over his younger brother Alex Marquez, who finished eighth on his Ducati Gresini.
Italian Francesco Bagnaia, the second rider on the official Ducati team, failed to score any points after finishing 13th. The double world champion had struggled in qualifying at the end of the morning, setting only the 15th fastest time. The race lost three riders in the first few seconds.
“Today has been chaotic,” Di Giannantonio said.
Frenchman Fabio Quartararo started on the second row, and was the rider who gave Marc Marquez a first corner scare, braking late on his Yamaha and then colliding with Italian Enea Bastianini.
Quartararo crashed, Bastianini managed to keep his KTM on the track but a few corners later, he ran into the back of the second French rider Johann Zarco’s Honda, ending the race for both of them.
Both Quartararo and Bastianini were penalized by the stewards for the main race yesterday after press time. The Frenchman was hit with a long lap penalty for “causing a dangerous situation and contact” with Bastianini.
The Italian, who was able to continue after the collision, would have to serve two long laps — his penalty was doubled as this is his second of the season — for his collision with Zarco.
Bastianini was found guilty of “irresponsible riding causing a crash.”
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