Marquez wins San Marino sprint, boosts MotoGP title bid

Marc Marquez has pulled off the perfect getaway to beat home favourite Marco Bezzecchi and win Saturday's San Marino Grand Prix sprint, closing to within 14 points of MotoGP championship leader Jorge Martin who finished third.

Aprilia's Bezzecchi had smashed the lap record to take pole ahead of Marquez in qualifying, but it was the Ducati great who had the perfect launch off the line on Saturday before diving on the inside of turn one to storm into the lead.

From there, the reigning champion never looked back, though he had to work for his win as Bezzecchi initially matched his pace before Marquez found another gear to pull clear.

"Immediately when I started, the plan was to try to lead the race because I had the medium tyre and Bezzecchi was with the soft tyre," Marquez said.

"There were laps when they were a bit dangerous but then I tried to push. I see that I opened a gap. I tried to relax a bit and I saw that Marco was coming back.

"Then I attacked in the last laps because the pace was there. I was just trying to manage the risk. Happy with this victory, but the most important is tomorrow."

Bezzecchi managed to reel in Marquez to get within striking distance towards the end but the Ducati rider quickly responded with a race lap record on the penultimate lap before taking the chequered flag.

Bezzecchi, third in the standings, is now 22 points off top spot following his best sprint result of the season after finishing third four times.