Marc Marquez took advantage of the chaos caused by rain to win the Sprint Race at the 2026 Spanish Grand Prix, finishing just ahead of Ducati teammate Francesco Bagnaia on Saturday at Jerez.
Earlier in the day, Marquez had secured pole position by narrowly beating LCR Honda’s Johann Zarco in a wet qualifying session. While there were concerns that more rain could hit before the race, conditions held steady until after the start.
Marquez built an early lead and looked in control, but as rain began to fall, Alex Marquez made a strong push before crashing out. The changing conditions led to several incidents, but Marc stayed upright to claim his first Sprint win since joining Ducati.
Marquez got off to a strong start, leading comfortably into Turn 1, but it was a different story for championship leader Marco Bezzecchi. Starting from P4, the Aprilia rider lost ground after spinning his rear tyre on a visor tear-off, dropping him back to P14.
Jorge Martin made an early impression on his factory Aprilia RS-GP, climbing up from P7 to join the battle behind Johann Zarco. However, his race ended almost as soon as it began, with an early reliability issue forcing the 2024 champion to retire after just one lap.
Zarco’s hold on second place early in the race created problems for both Gresini’s Alex Marquez and VR46’s Fabio Di Giannantonio. But Marquez made his move on Lap 2, leaving Zarco to fend off Di Giannantonio for a bit longer.
While Zarco wasn’t about to back down after a strong qualifying showing – even as rain began to fall – he struggled with what his Honda RC213V could offer him. Turn 8 was often where he lost out and found himself under pressure.
The first signs of rain didn’t slow Alex Marquez down either. The Gresini rider started closing in on Marc at this point, who hadn’t matched Alex’s practice pace up until then.
As Marc Marquez began holding Alex up at this stage of the Sprint Race at Jerez, Di Giannantonio took advantage and closed in by nearly a second. As grip continued to deteriorate, Alex eventually made Marc pay for being too cautious by overtaking him.
The worsening rain then led Toprak Razgatlioglu of Pramac to take out Aprilia test rider Lorenzo Savadori. Not long after that incident came another mistake when Marc crashed while trying to stay with Alex in podium contention.
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