Marquez on cloud nine with ninth sprint victory of season at Dutch GP

Ducatis Marc Marquez brushed aside two practice crashes to storm to his ninth sprint victory of the season at the Dutch Grand Prix on Saturday to extend his MotoGP championship lead despite starting fourth on the grid at Assen.

Marquez finished ahead of his brother Alex of Gresini Racing and Aprilias Marco Bezzecchi claimed third place for his first sprint podium since 2023 while pole sitter Fabio Quartararo of Yamaha crashed with four laps to go.

Marc extends his lead in the championship to 43 points over Alex going into Sundays race while Ducatis Francesco Bagnaia, third in the championship, could only manage fifth place behind VR46 Racings Fabio Di Giannantonio.

The victory will give Marc a significant psychological boost after he crashed twice in Fridays practice, as he seeks a first race win at The Cathedral of Speed since 2018.

Today we breathe a lot... because my body cannot accept another big crash like yesterday. Today I was just calm, trying to control the situations, Marc said.

Its true that I didnt expect the victory but I started fast and then I defended (my position). I tried not to make any big mistakes, didnt exaggerate.

The points are super important. Lets see tomorrow if we can manage that T3 (turn 3) and turn 11-12 - that is my weak point here in the circuit.

Quartararo had claimed his fourth pole position of the season in qualifying earlier on Saturday and the Frenchman led the pack into turn one when the lights went out.

However, he had to elbow Marc out of the way into turn one after the Spaniard had a blistering start off the line, with the Ducati rider leaning so close to him that his right shoulder briefly touched Quartararos boot.

Although he led for most of