Marquez wins chaotic Qatar sprint as Bezzecchi exits title race

Marc Marquez won a dramatic MotoGP sprint race in Qatar on Saturday after surviving a collision with Marco Bezzecchi that eliminated the Aprilia rider from the race and from title contention, according to Autosport.

The contact happened at Turn 1 on the fourth lap as the pair fought for the lead, with Bezzecchi crashing out and Marquez's airbag deploying on impact, Yahoo Sports reported.

Despite the airbag firing, Marquez stayed upright and went on to hold off Jorge Martin to take the win, setting up the chance to seal the championship in Sunday's Qatar Grand Prix.

Martin, riding with a broken wrist, produced what Autosport described as a spectacular effort to fight through to third place in the sprint.

Stewards classed the Marquez-Bezzecchi clash as a racing incident, but it prompted contrasting explanations from both riders afterwards.

Marquez said Bezzecchi had misjudged how much pace advantage he held over the field going into the corner.

"For me, it was clear," said Marquez. "If you check the helicopter [cameras], my Turn 1 was exactly the same on that lap and the next ones. I always go a bit wide and try to close the line."

Marquez likened the moment to a clash with Bezzecchi at the start of last year's Indonesian Grand Prix, when the Italian hit him from behind while carrying extra speed into a fast corner, arguing the Aprilia rider had again underestimated how far he was ahead of the pack on pace.

Bezzecchi rejected the comparison to the Indonesia incident, though he said he did not want the clash to dominate the build-up to Sunday's race.

"It's not super fair to take out one completely different episode," he said. "But, I respect what he says. I personally don't agree because it's completely different. But it doesn't matter too much right now."

He described his own view of the contact plainly: "In the end, I tried my line, I was on the inside and a second later I was on the ground. So, it's something that can happen."

Asked whether he was angry about how the incident unfolded, Bezzecchi said there was little point dwelling on something outside his control and that his focus had shifted to Sunday's race.

Marquez admitted he was unsure how close he had come to crashing himself, given riders on the outside of such incidents are usually the ones who go down.

"I don't know," he said. "I just felt the contact and poof, [the airbag] deployed. But I don't know if my bike was shaking a lot or not."

He added that he had been fully focused in the moment and, in that state, did not register what his bike was doing beneath him.

Marquez also said the airbag's deployment affected his pace immediately afterwards: "[After the airbag deployed] I was not able to ride the bike for three or four corners. When Martin overtook me, it was not a great surprise for my race."

Marquez used his post-sprint media session to tip Bezzecchi, who will start Sunday's Grand Prix from pole position, as the man to beat.

"Tomorrow, if nothing strange happens, Marco will win the race. Because he's faster than everybody," he said.

Separately, Autosport reported that Francesco Bagnaia will miss the Qatar Grand Prix after sustaining fractures to his right foot.

Marquez's sprint victory leaves him in position to clinch the MotoGP title in Sunday's Grand Prix, with Martin's third-placed finish, achieved despite his wrist injury, keeping him in the mix behind the championship leader.