Alex Marquez delivered the closest victory in MotoGP Sprint history at Catalunya on Saturday, edging Pedro Acosta by just 0.041 seconds in a race that scrambled the championship picture and left factory Aprilia counting points lost.
The Gresini Ducati rider needed every metre of the 12-lap dash to keep the works KTM behind him, with Fabio Di Giannantonio holding on for third some 0.4 seconds back. The win was Alex Marquez's first Sprint triumph since his elder brother Marc was sidelined by injury, and he was quick to temper the celebrations with a reminder about Sunday's main event.
"Nice victory, but if I think about tomorrow we are still missing something to be competitive in the long race," Marquez said.
Acosta, who carried pole position into the Sprint after lighting up Friday and Saturday morning, came home with the bitter taste of a near miss. The Catalan home race remains the only round where the 21-year-old has not converted strong qualifying pace into a Sprint win.
"Just one more lap! Pace quite OK, start quite OK but we're missing something in the beginning of the race," Acosta said.
Di Giannantonio paid the price for a Q2 misstep that bumped him onto the second row, then survived a first-corner tangle with Brad Binder and Joan Mir that took both KTM and Honda men out of the points fight. The VR46 Ducati rider acknowledged the start cost him a shot at the front two.
"Unfortunately, today we started from the second row because I made a mistake in Qualifying and the race start is always difficult," Di Giannantonio said.
Trackhouse Aprilia's Raul Fernandez crossed in fourth, the highest-placed Aprilia on the day after factory leader Marco Bezzecchi was buried in ninth and Jorge Martin became one of three lap-three retirements with his fourth crash of the weekend. Fernandez was left rueing what might have been after losing third on the run to the line.
"I'm happy but not happy because I lost the Sprint podium in the last two laps," Fernandez said.
Johann Zarco rounded out the top five, giving Castrol Honda LCR a Sprint result the manufacturer has rarely sniffed at this circuit.
The biggest story behind the result was the silence from factory Aprilia. Bezzecchi, who arrived in Barcelona on a five-Sprint win streak, dropped his head on the slowdown lap after a fall in Q2 had pushed him onto row three and a tangled opening lap finished his chances of damage limitation. The Italian still holds the championship lead, but only by a single point over Martin, with Acosta now lurking close behind in third.
"It was a bit of a complicated day. The crash in Q2 was a shame," Bezzecchi said.
Martin's Turn 10 fall on lap three was his ninth crash inside a fortnight covering Le Mans and Catalunya, and his fourth at this weekend alone. The Spaniard climbed out unhurt, but the works Aprilia has now lost its strongest weekend momentum in the very race where it expected to dominate.
Acosta starts Sunday's 24-lap Grand Prix from pole position with the Gresini and VR46 Ducatis lining up alongside. Bezzecchi will start from row three, leaving Aprilia with a steep climb to keep its title lead in single figures by the time the paddock packs up for Mugello.
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*Originally published on [Motorsports Global](https://motorsports.global/article/alex-marquez-catalunya-sprint-win-acosta-0041s-2026). Visit for full coverage.*
