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Lewis Duncan

MotoGP Austrian GP: Bagnaia wins sprint race, Martin causes chaos

Starting from pole at the Red Bull Ring, Bagnaia fended off the fast-starting KTM duo of Brad Binder and Jack Miller on the run to Turn 1 to take the holeshot.

Quickly pulling a gap to Binder in second, Bagnaia on his factory Ducati increasingly came under less threat as the 14-lap contest ticked away, getting to the chequered flag 2.056s clear for his fourth sprint win.

Bagnaia’s sprint victory now puts him 46 points ahead in the championship over Martin, with Marco Bezzecchi 59 adrift.

Binder was second while Pramac’s Martin completed the podium, but is currently under investigation for triggering chaos at Turn 1 on the opening lap.

Left in 12th after having multiple laps deleted in qualifying for exceeding track limits, Martin came charging into Turn 1 looking to make up ground.

But he nudged Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo as the field bunched into the first right-hander, which sent the Frenchman into the side of the slow-starting Aprilia of Maverick Vinales.

This all led to Martin’s team-mate Johann Zarco, VR46 Ducati’s Marco Bezzecchi and RNF Aprilia’s Miguel Oliveira crashing out, while Quartararo, Vinales and Ducati’s Enea Bastianini were forced to pick their way through the chaos and tumbled down the order.

This incident is currently under investigation by the stewards.

At the end of the opening lap, Bagnaia and Binder were already starting to drop Miller, who was a second adrift come the end of the second tour.

Miller soon came under threat from VR46’s Luca Marini and Martin, with the former picking his way through into Turn 1 on lap six.

Martin was gifted fourth when KTM’s Miller ran wide under braking for Turn 3 moments later.

Martin piled pressure on Marini and launched a move into the Turn 2 chicane on the next lap, but made contact with the VR46 rider as he carved up the inside.

Marini crashed out and Martin was placed under investigation again, but avoided a penalty for that particular incident.

This left him to finish a distant third from Binder and Bagnaia ahead, while Gresini’s Alex Marquez took fourth from Miller.

Pol Espargaro was sixth on the Tech3 KTM in a heroic ride from 13th, edging out brother Aleix Espargaro on the factory Aprilia by 0.144s at the chequered flag.

Vinales recovered to eighth after his Turn 1 chaos involvement having started second, while Franco Morbidelli took the final sprint point on his Yamaha away from Honda’s Marc Marquez, who leaped up from 18th on the grid.

Bastianini was 13th behind Joan Mir (Honda) and Gresini’s Fabio Di Giannantonio, while Raul Fernandez was 15th on the RNF Aprilia ahead of Quartararo.

Quartararo was involved in a touch with Aprilia wildcard Lorenzo Savadori at Turn 4 on lap six, which resulted in the Yamaha rider being given a long lap penalty.

LCR stand-in Iker Lecuona was 16th from Augusto Fernandez, who also got slapped with a long lap penalty for exceeding track limits too many times.

Zarco re-joined the race after the Turn 1 incident but retired late on, while Takaaki Nakagami was taken to the medical centre for checks on his foot after taking a tumble on lap three.

MotoGP Austrian GP - Sprint race results:

 
 
         
Driver Info
 
 
 
   
Cla Rider # Bike Laps Time Interval km/h Retirement Points
1 Italy F. Bagnaia Francesco Bagnaia Ducati Team 1 Ducati 14 -       12
2 South Africa B. Binder Brad Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 33 KTM 14 +2.056 2.056     9
3 Spain J. Martin Jorge Martin Pramac Racing 89 Ducati 14 +5.045 2.989     7
4 Spain A. Marquez Alex Marquez Gresini Racing 73 Ducati 14 +8.252 3.207     6
5 Australia J. Miller Jack Miller Red Bull KTM Factory Racing 43 KTM 14 +11.365 3.113     5
6 Spain P. Espargaro Pol Espargaro Tech 3 44 KTM 14 +11.816 0.451     4
7 Spain A. Espargaro Aleix Espargaro Aprilia Racing Team 41 Aprilia 14 +11.960 0.144     3
8 Spain M. Viñales Maverick Viñales Aprilia Racing Team 12 Aprilia 14 +11.984 0.024     2
9 Italy F. Morbidelli Franco Morbidelli Yamaha Factory Racing 21 Yamaha 14 +13.634 1.650     1
10 Spain M. Marquez Marc Marquez Repsol Honda Team 93 Honda 14 +14.435 0.801      
11 Italy F. Di Giannantonio Fabio Di Giannantonio Gresini Racing 49 Ducati 14 +15.251 0.816      
12 Spain J. Mir Joan Mir Repsol Honda Team 36 Honda 14 +16.740 1.489      
13 Italy E. Bastianini Enea Bastianini Ducati Team 23 Ducati 14 +18.825 2.085      
14 Spain R. Fernández Raúl Fernández RNF Racing 25 Aprilia 14 +19.536 0.711      
15 France F. Quartararo Fabio Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing 20 Yamaha 14 +22.321 2.785      
16 Spain I. Lecuona Iker Lecuona Team LCR 27 Honda 14 +25.593 3.272      
17 Spain A. Fernandez Augusto Fernandez Tech 3 37 KTM 14 +25.789 0.196      
dnf France J. Zarco Johann Zarco Pramac Racing 5 Ducati 11       Retirement  
dnf Italy L. Marini Luca Marini Team VR46 10 Ducati 6       Retirement  
dnf Italy L. Savadori Lorenzo Savadori Aprilia Racing Team 32 Aprilia 5       Retirement  
dnf Japan T. Nakagami Takaaki Nakagami Team LCR 30 Honda 2       Retirement  
dnf Italy M. Bezzecchi Marco Bezzecchi Team VR46 72 Ducati 1       Retirement  
dnf Portugal M. Oliveira Miguel Oliveira RNF Racing 88 Aprilia 0       Retirement  
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