Aprilia MotoGP rider Jorge Martin dominated the French Grand Prix sprint from eighth on the grid to close in on the championship lead.

Martin now sits six points behind team-mate Marco Bezzecchi, and both have pulled further clear of reigning champion Marc Marquez - who exited the race late on in a violent highside.

Fast starts have been Martin's greatest asset this season, and Saturday's was perhaps the most fruitful yet - as he went eighth-to-first, completing the move for the lead around the outside of Marco Bezzecchi at the Dunlop chicane.

Surprisingly, Bezzecchi never had the pace to go with him, instead coming under pressure from Pecco Bagnaia and eventually making a mistake at La Musee to let Bagnaia through.

But Martin already had a second in hand by then, and he managed that lead to the end of the 13-lap race, beating Bagnaia by 1.1s.

Bezzecchi finished a relatively lonely third, followed by KTM's Pedro Acosta and Yamaha rider Fabio Quartararo.

It was the V4-engined Yamaha's best finish in MotoGP so far, set up by Quartararo moving up to fourth off the line. He got overtaken by Acosta, but soaked up pressure from Honda rider Joan Mir for many laps after to hang on to fifth.

AN ABSOLUTELY MASSIVE CRASH for @marcmarquez93 💥

Thankfully he's up on his feet #FrenchGP 🇫🇷 pic.twitter.com/gyPcleGMFZ

Marquez was right behind the pair when he crashed. He had struggled in the early laps, fifth after the start and then picked off by Acosta and Mir, but stemmed the tide and looked to be eyeing up a way past Mir and Quartararo on the final lap.

Before he could start that final lap, however, Marquez lost the front, the crash developing into a major highside at the penultimate corner - which shredded his Ducati and threw Marquez high up, the seven-time champion taking a knock to his head upon his landing. He was conscious but was seen limping very slowly with the help of others, into his motorhome.

🫢 @marcmarquez93 makes his way back with a bit of a limp#FrenchGP 🇫🇷 pic.twitter.com/97ThWyw9wt

His crash promoted Ai Ogura to seventh, Ogura having just worked his way past another Marquez - brother Alex.

With Ogura's team-mate Raul Fernandez having crashed out behind them, LCR Honda rookie Diogo Moreira picked up the final point in ninth.

There had been crashes early on in quick succession for Honda's Luca Marini and Tech3 KTM injury stand-in Jonas Folger.

Fabio Di Giannantonio, frontrunner all weekend, had his race immediately undone by a terrible start from fourth, then crashed at the Dunlop chicane - his crash also hampering VR46 team-mate Franco Morbidelli, who then fell later in the race.

There was also a fall for Enea Bastianini (Tech3 KTM).

Race results

1 Jorge Martin (Aprilia)
2 Pecco Bagnaia (Ducati) +1.107s
3 Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia) +2.786s
4 Pedro Acosta (KTM) +3.808s
5 Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) +4.402s
6 Joan Mir (Honda) +4.630s
7 Ai Ogura (Trackhouse Aprilia) +5.670s
8 Alex Marquez (Gresini Ducati) +6.608s
9 Diogo Moreira (LCR Honda) +10.368s
10 Johann Zarco (LCR Honda) +11.771s
11 Fermin Aldeguer (Gresini Ducati) +13.435s
12 Brad Binder (KTM) +14.708s
13 Alex Rins (Yamaha) +15.413s
14 Toprak Razgatlioglu (Pramac Yamaha) +16.968s
15 Jack Miller (Pramac Yamaha) +17.603s
16 Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46 Ducati) +1 lap
DNF Marc Marquez (Ducati)
DNF Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse Aprilia)
DNF Franco Morbidelli (VR46 Ducati)
DNF Enea Bastianini (Tech3 KTM)
DNF Luca Marini (Honda)
DNF Jonas Folger (Tech3 KTM)