BURIRAM, Thailand (Reuters) -Ducati’s Enea Bastianini won the sprint at the Thailand Grand Prix on Saturday to claim his second sprint victory of the season, ahead of world championship leader Jorge Martin and defending champion Francesco Bagnaia.
Martin’s second place allowed him to narrowly increase his lead over pole-sitter Bagnaia in the championship by two points to 22 heading into Sunday’s race.
Martin nearly had a dream start when he rocketed into the lead for a split second heading into the first turn, but his aggression cost him as he drifted wide and fell to fifth, while Bastianini moved up to the front ahead of team mate Bagnaia.
Martin gradually moved back up to fourth and overtook Gresini Racing rider Marc Marquez to move in behind Bagnaia.
With Martin hot on his heels, Bagnaia did his best to hold on but he was eventually chased down in the seventh lap, though his Pramac Racing rival risked incurring a long-lap penalty after coming within centimetres of exceeding track limits.
Neither of the two title rivals ever looked close to denying Bastianini the victory as the Italian built up a comfortable lead and crossed the line well ahead of Martin.
Marquez and his brother Alex (Gresini) finished fourth and fifth, while Pramac Racing’s Franco Morbidelli was sixth.
(Reporting by Aadi Nair in Nashik, India; Editing by William Mallard and Clare Fallon)
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