The first qualifying sessions and sprint races in Brazil were filled with action and overtakes, plus a huge delay in the middle.

Q1: Bezzecchi and Di Giannantonio give themselves an advantage

Riders in Q1 were seen to be getting an advantage due to 15 minutes extra track time, meaning that whoever got through to Q2 would put themselves in the fight for the front row.

However the session started with a rare crash for Luca Marini, his second of the day, putting himself on the back foot.

KTM also put themselves in a world of struggle, with Vinales, Binder and Bastianini the bottom 3 riders in the Q1, leading for us to wonder about the competitiveness of the bike, and whether only Pedro Acosta can ride it.

In the end, it was the 2 favourites to go through who went through, in Thai GP winner Bezzecchi and VR46 man Di Giannantonio, with a time of a 1:17.408 for the Aprilia, ahead of Mir and a super job from home hero Moreira in 4th.

Top 2:

1. Marco Bezzecchi
2. Fabio Di Giannantonio

Q2: Multiple crashes leads to some surprises

Q2 was a tail of crashes in Brazil, with a total of 5 during the session including some for big names.

Riders went out in close proximity to each other, with run the risk of laps being ruined if incidents happened. This was exactly what happened, as crashes for Marc Marquez, Bagnaia and Pedro Acosta left them scrambling to get back and laps ruined due to yellow flags.

One rider who could’ve been on pole was Jorge Martin, who was underneath the quickest time when he crashed on the entry to the Turn 10/11 chicane.

One man who didn’t crash was Di Giannantonio, who used his extra track time to take pole ahead of Marquez despite his crash and Marco Bezzecchi in the third.

The session shock came from the Yamaha of Fabio Quartararo, who went out on his own and put himself 4th on the grid, and only a tenth and a half away on the new Yamaha V4

Front 2 rows:

1. Fabio Di Giannantonio
2. Marc Marquez
3. Marco Bezzecchi
4. Fabio Quartararo
5. Jorge Martin
6. Ai Ogura

Track repairs delay the sprint

After Motogp qualifying, it became evident that a sinkhole had began to appear on the track, with officials needing to repair it before the beginning of the sprint.

This repair meant that the area around had to be dug up, leading to a significant delay and the postponement of Moto2 and Moto3 qualifying.

Eventually the sprint race would begin after conditions were to a safe level, albeit an hour and 20 minutes later than originally planned.

Sprint: Marquez fights past Di Giannantonio to score sprint win

Marquez came back from an initial tricky start to beat VR46 man Di Giannantonio to the first sprint win in Brazil.

The Italian in the VR46 was aided by a brilliant start from pole position, leaving him a second ahead initially, as Marquez fell behind the fast aggressive starting Yamaha of Quartararo.

After passing the Yamaha, Marquez closed up on Di Giannantonio and looked to be heading for second until Fabio made a mistake with 3 laps to go, giving Marquez the prime opportunity to strike, and holding of the VR46 fightback until the chequered flag.

They were joined on the podium by Jorge Martin, who was on the podium for the first time since winning the world championship at the Solidarity GP in 2024, after overtaking and outpacing teammate Bezzecchi, something not yet seen at Aprilia.

The other GP26 Ducatis disappointed, with Alex Marquez and Pecco Bagnaia 7th and 8th behind Ogura and Quartararo, with Ogura once again making it 3 Aprilia’s in the Top 5, and Quartararo surprising to hold onto a top 6 spot.

Pedro Acosta scored one point in 9th, and leads the world championship by 2 points as we go into the race in Goiania tomorrow, with the KTM not looking a match for Ducati and Aprilia.