Jorge Martin has extended his MotoGP championship lead after a dominating display in the Sprint race at Silverstone.
The pole man led from start-to-finish and was left unchallenged by the field throughout. It’s Martin’s third Sprint victory of the 2026 season, and his 19 th overall, whilst the Spaniard now holds a 17-point lead over Ai Ogura.
Ogura finished second to limit the damage as much as he could in the title fight, whilst Marco Bezzecchi powered through to third on his return from injury to make it an Aprilia lockout on the podium. Bezzecchi underwent collarbone and knee surgery following his huge crash at the Sachsenring.
There were tears flowing from the Italian’s eyes in Parc Ferme after a tough few months for the early 2026 championship leader. It’s Bezzecchi’s first podium since finishing third in the Sprint at Balaton Park.
Alex Marquez, twice a Sprint winner at Silverstone, was the leading Ducati rider in fourth ahead of Fabio di Giannantonio, with Pedro Acosta once again crossing the line as the top KTM rider in sixth.
Joan Mir finished in seventh for Honda, whilst Franco Morbidelli overtook Marc Marquez late in the race to finish seventh. Marquez struggled throughout the race on his soft rear tyre, with other riders overtaking him with ease. Marquez is now 29 points behind Martin.
Diogo Moreira crossed the line a mere 0.027s behind Marquez, with Brad Binder just 0.150s further back in 11 th .
Luca Marini and Jack Miller finished 12 th and 13 th respectfully, ahead of Fabio Quartararo and Enea Bastianini. Pecco Bagnaia had a race to forget in 17 th , with Pol Espargaro, Augusto Fernandez and Toprak Razgatlioglu the final finishers.
Cal Crutchlow crashed at turn four on the opening lap. The Brit did rejoin the race but later returned to the LCR Honda garage to retire the RC213V.
Iker Lecuona also fell on the opening lap, with the Gresini Ducati rider going down at turn 16 whilst battling Morbidelli. Race direction placed the incident under investigation, however Morbidelli was cleared of any wrongdoing.
Raul Fernandez crashed out of sixth at turn four on the fourth lap. Like Crutchlow, Fernandez remounted but ultimately returned to pit-lane and retired.
Sunday’s Grand Prix race is scheduled to begin at 1pm.
Sports Reporter - Motorcycle racing enthusiast Josh joined the MCN team in 2019. He studied Sports Journalism at the University of Sunderland, leaving with a 2:1 and a Gold Standard Diploma in Journalism from the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ). Introduced to the world of motorcycle racing by his dad as a youngster, Josh became a fan of MotoGP, WorldSBK and BSB. Like many, Josh became a huge Valentino Rossi supporter…little did he know that years later he would ask a question or two to the man himself.
Sports Reporter and fan of all things motorsport