Aprilia rider Georges Martin won the Sprint race at the 2026 MotoGP French Grand Prix, after a good start to beat Ducati Asse’s Francesco Bagnaia at Le Mans on Saturday.
Martin Despite only qualifying in P8 on the day, he made his rivals pay from the start of the Le Mans Sprint. Bagnaya At 1:29.634 compared to Martin’s 1:29.847, the Ducati Ace was unable to respond to the speed of the Aprilia star.
Bagnaia put at least one Ducati on the Le Mans sprint podium and in the top six. Mark Marquez A good finish couldn’t build on an impressive performance to recover. Marquez’s day was made worse by a late crash.
Jorge Martin wins the Le Mans sprint by fending off Francesco Bagna! Can he do the double in the French Grand Prix? 🇫🇷
George Martin won the Le Mans Sprint at the 2026 MotoGP French Grand Prix
Francesco Bagnaia took pole for the French GP Earlier on Saturday with a late dash to deny Ducati team-mate Marc Marquez P1. But the Italian didn’t get a good start off the line, as Aprilia’s Marco Bezecchi was flying ahead and Marquez edged ahead of Bagania at first.
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Marquez’s hopes of fighting at the front were dashed early at Turn 3 but after he panicked and dropped down the order. Fortune was very much against George Martin, taking the slightly ambitious Aprilia rider to T3 from P8 on the grid straight into the lead.
As Martin began to gain some breathing space in the lead, Bezecic immediately began to catch Bagnaia in the fight for P2. The Aprilia star made a mistake and ran too deep on lap 3, Bagnaia not asking for a second invitation to overtake his Italian compatriot.
Pedro Acosta, Fabio Quatararo and Joan Mir all passed the reigning champion as Marquez’s woes began to gather momentum in the opening laps. Luca Marini’s sprint on the other Honda was already over on Lap 2 after he and Jonas Folger crashed.
A crash led to a sorry Sprint for VR46 ace Fabio Di Giannantonio, who dropped nine places after a poor start before hitting the gravel at Le Mans on lap 4/13. Teammate Franco Morbidelli crashed on lap 7 in turn 13 as Di Giannantonio rejoined.
How many more crashes can Marc Marquez take after his powerful performance in the Le Mans Sprint? 🫣
Folger also suffered a double DNF at the Le Mans Sprints, following his crash with Marini due to an injury during his stoppage against Maverick Vinales. Ene Bastianini found him on gravel 6 to leave the KTM rider ace Pedro Acosta.
Trackhouse’s Raul Fernandez added his name to the list of drivers who have crashed during the Sprint at Le Mans while in P10. But the biggest crash of the Le Mans Sprint went to Marquez, who came out of the strong and late surge on lap 13 when his front tire seized up trying to avoid a slide.
Results of the 2026 French GP full Le Mans Sprint race
| POS | RIDER | group | GAP |
| 1 | George Martin | Aprilia | 19:46:83 |
| 2 | Francesco Bagnaia | Ducati | +1.107 s |
| 3 | Marco Bezecchi | Aprilia | +2.786 s |
| 4 | Pedro Acosta | KTM | +3.808s |
| 5 | Fabio Quatararo | Yamaha | +4.402 s |
| 6 | Joan Mir | Honda | +4.630s |
| 7 | No. Ogura | Tracking house | +5.670s |
| 8 | Alex Marquez | Gresini | +6.608s |
| 9 | Diogo Moreira | LCR | +10.368s |
| 10 | Johann Zarko | LCR | +11.771 s |
| 11 | Fermin Aldeguer | Gresini | +13.435 s |
| 12 | Brad Binder | KTM | +14.708 s |
| 13 | Alex Rin | Yamaha | +15.413 s |
| 14 | Toprak Razgatlioglu | Pramak | +16.968 s |
| 15 | Jack Miller | Pramak | +17.603 s |
| 16 | Fabio D’Giantantonio | VR46 | + 32.985 |
| 17 | Mark Marquez | Ducati | DNF |
| 18 | Raul Fernandez | Tracking house | DNF |
| 19 | Franco Morbidelli | VR46 | DNF |
| 20 | Ine Bastianini | Tech3 | DNF |
| 21 | Luca Marini | Honda | DNF |
| 22 | Jonas Folger | Tech3 | DNF |
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