Francesco Bagnaia and the Ducati Lenovo Team take the Sprint win at Brno, Marc Márquez on the podium in third position

The Ducati Lenovo Team took centre stage on Saturday at the Automotodrom Brno: Francesco Bagnaia claimed victory in the ninth Sprint of the season, while Marc Márquez finished the race on the podium in third, less than eight tenths adrift of his teammate.

Bagnaia got the perfect launch from third place on the grid and took the lead at turn one. Pecco managed the soft-tyre wear expertly, building a small advantage in the opening laps before fiercely defending first place in the closing stages. Starting from the second row, Márquez was third at the end of lap one. In the latter stages of the race, Marc tried unsuccessfully to overtake Ogura for second position.

The Ducati Lenovo Team will be back in action tomorrow morning at 9:40 local time (GMT +2) for the warm up, which will be followed by the Monster Energy Grand Prix of Czechia, contested over 21 laps from 14:00.

Francesco Bagnaia (#63 Ducati Lenovo Team) – 1st
“I'm happy, as we managed to stay competitive since yesterday. After an adjustment that didn't work out as we'd hoped, we reverted to yesterday's set-up for qualifying and everything worked well. We then chose the soft tyre, with the goal of being quicker in the opening two to three laps and then managing our lead in the closing stages. The strategy worked, and this is a great confidence boost ahead of tomorrow. I'm still not perfectly comfortable with the bike, but I love this track and we'll continue to work ahead of the race, especially to manage rear-tyre wear as effectively as possible.”

Marc Márquez (#93 Ducati Lenovo Team) – 3rd
“I'm happy with the Sprint podium here at Brno. Given our fifth place on the grid, I was expecting a much more challenging race. The early part went well: I struggled a bit with the fresh rear tyre and the slipstream, as they didn't allow me to brake the way I wanted and forced me to carry more corner speed. In this situation, it was easy to tuck the front. Then, with clearer track ahead, I felt a lot more comfortable, but as soon as I got close to Ogura, overtaking him turned out to be impossible. I tried to take it easier for a few laps and then have another go at the end, but on the final lap I realised it was too risky.”