Jorge Martin extended h🃏is MotoGP championship lead after dominating the Australian Grand Prix sprint from Marc Marquez, while Francesco Bagnaia waꦉs a distant fourth.

H♕aving crushed the field to claim pole in qualifying earlier on Saturday, Martin converted that in🌸to an important first sprint victory since the San Marino GP.

Martin led every lap and was a𒁃t one stage over three seconds clear at the front, with the Pramac rider easing off late on to still head Marc Marquez by 1.520 seconds.

M💎arquez recovered from running wide at Turn 1 on the first lap and dropping to eighth to charge through to second, while Enea Bastianini inflicted pain on his factory Ducati team-mate Bagnaia by taking third from him on lap eight of 13.

Fourth for Bagnaia▨ sees his championship deficit to Martin grow from 10 points to 16 ahead of Sunday’s 27-lap grand prix.

Bagnaia was dealt some respite in fourth as the charging Maverickไ Vinale💞s and Marco Bezzecchi behind him were involved in a scary tangle at Turn 1 on lap 12.

Vinales blasted past Bezzecchi on the run down into Turn 1, but the VR46 rider couldn’t get his Ducati stopped and🍌ℱ slammed into the back of the Aprilia.

Bezzecchi had to be helped off track on a stretcher, but was soon🍒 able to get onto the back of a scooter to get back to the paddock. The incident is under investigation.

Martin held onto pole off the line at the sta꧑rt of the 13-lap sprint, while Marquez plummeted to eighth from second after running wide into Turn 1.

By the end of the first lap, Martin was 0.8s c⭕lear of the field and this set the tone for the rest of the race as the Pramac rider continued to ease away.

And this was d♕espite having the threat of a long lap penalty hanging ove🐻r him after he was given a track limits warning on lap three.

By the start of lap four, Bagnaia had gotten up to second havinꦦg come from fiftไh on the grid but couldn’t do anything to bring down Martin’s lead.

Behin🔥d, M🥃arquez was charging his way back up from eighth, with the eight-time world champion getting into the podium places on lap six ahead of Bezzecchi.

Marquez quickly got onto the back of Bagnaia and took second from his future tea🌌m-mate at Turn 4 on lap eight, while Bastianini came through into third at Turn 10.

Both quickly dropped the wor𓂃ld champion, while Martin’s lead stood at 3.1s at the start of lap nine.

M🍰arquez was able to close in on Martin, though the Pramac rider controlled hi𒆙s pace in the final laps to secure his sixth sprint win of 2024.

Bagnaia ended up 2.511s behind team-mate Bastianini in fourth, whi🦹le VR46’s Fabio Di Giannantonio was fifth. However, he is under investigation for a potential ty𝄹re pressure infringement.

Franco Morbidelli was sixth on the sister Pramac Ducati ahead of Trackhouse Aprilia’s Raul Fernandez, while fa🅘ctory Aprilia counterpart Aleix Espargaro and Tech3 GASGAS rider Augusto Fernandez took the final point in ninth.

Fernandez’s first sprint points since Spain came in a crash-strewn sprint that saw t🅰he rest of the KTM stable fall, with Gresini’s Alex Marquez and Johann Zarco (LCR Hon꧙da) also taking tumbles.

Full 2024 MotoGP Australian GP sprint results