Marc Marquez continues dominance with Italian MotoGP sprint win

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.

The Spanish motorcycling great had to battle back from a disastrous start from pole position 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 sibling after overtaking him on the fourth lap.

It was his eighth win from nine sprint races this season after conquering his 100th career pole earlier on Saturday, and sets him up for another perfect weekend in what has been a dream campaign in his first season with Ducati's factory team.

Marc Marquez has won the sprint and main race at the Thailand, Argentina, Qatar and Aragon MotoGP with eight race weekends completed so far this season.

His teammate Francesco Bagnaia, who has won the last three GPs at his home track Mugello, dropped back a position into third and is now 98 points off the pace in the title race.