MotoGP Austrian GP: Bagnaia dominates sprint after Turn 1 pile-up

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, reaching the chequered flag 2.056s ahead 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 with the incident 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.

Brad Binder, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

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 distance 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 leapt 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

Main Information Additional Data Additional Data Driver Info Driver Info

         

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