Marquez stars in Italian MotoGP sprint race

Marc Marquez continued his march towards a seventh elite world title by winning Saturday's sprint race at the Italian MotoGP and extending his lead at the top of the championship.

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The Spanish motorcycling great had to battle back from a disastrous start from pole position at Mugello to claim the full 12 points and move 35 points clear of his closest challenger and brother Alex Marquez.

Marc Marquez, who dropped back into the middle of the pack after fluffing his start on his Ducati bike, eventually finished 1.441sec ahead of his second-placed sibling after overtaking him on the fourth lap.

“At the start I don't know exactly what happened. The launch code was in, then I took it out and then I put it in again, then I lost a lot of positions,” he said.