2025 Spanish MotoGP: Marc Marquez dominates sprint as Fabio Quartararo crashes
100% sprint streak continues in 2025 for Marc Marquez at Jerez
Marc Marquez extended his MotoGP championship lead after dominating the sprint at the 2025 Spanish Grand Prix, as polesitter Fabio Quartararo crashed out.
Ducati rider Marc Marquez had his 100% pole streak ended on Saturday morning at Jerez after Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo took top honours in qualifying for the first time since 2022.
Briefly held at bay by Quartararo at the start of the sprint, Marquez took the lead into Turn 6 on the second lap and didn’t look back.
He got to the chequered flag just over a second clear of Alex Marquez on the Gresini-run GP24 Ducati to extend his points lead to 20.
Marc Marquez’s team-mate Pecco Bagnaia completed the podium, but is now 31 points behind in the championship heading into Sunday’s 25-lap grand prix.
Set for a podium battle after his first pole in three years, Quartararo’s sprint ended at Turn 6 on lap two as he tried to defend his position against Marquez.
Off the line, Marc Marquez got the better launch and moved into the lead into Turn 1 - only for Quartararo to outbrake him and scythe past again on his inside.
Quartararo led for the entirety of the first lap thereafter, but was under immense pressure from Marquez the whole time.
Nailing his run out of Turn 5 onto the back straight, Marquez wound up his factory Ducati and reeled Quartararo’s underpowered Yamaha towards him in the slipstream.
Outbraking him on the inside of Turn 6, Marquez edged ahead as Quartararo pushed too hard defending and fell.
This released Marc Marquez into a 0.4s lead over Alex Marquez, with that gap getting up to a second by the start of lap five.
The elder Marquez brother continued to pull away from the rest of the field, only backing off on the last lap to preserve his fifth successive sprint victory of the 2025 season.
Alex Marquez was 2.076s clear of Bagnaia in second to continue his sprint podium streak, while Franco Morbidelli on the VR46 Ducati was 0.453s further adrift in fourth.
Fermin Aldeguer was fifth on the sister Gresini-run GP24, while Fabio Di Giannantonio locked out an all-Ducati top six on the second VR46 machine.
Maverick Vinales was the top non-Ducati in seventh on the Tech3 KTM, with Marco Bezzecchi eighth for Aprilia and Joan Mir scoring the final point in ninth on the factory Honda.
Pedro Acosta was 2.259s outside of the points in 10th on the factory team KTM ahead of team-mate Brad Binder.
Alex Rins came from the back of the grid to 15th after his torrid start to Saturday which saw him crash twice, while Aleix Espargaro was 18th on the test team Honda in the first race of his wildcard appearance with HRC.
Pramac Yamaha’s Jack Miller crashed on the fifth lap, while LCR Honda’s Johann Zarco fell out of the race on the same tour.
