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Lewis Duncan

Red Bull Ring MotoGP: Bagnaia beats Quartararo for third straight win

Having been 91 points down on Quartararo in the championship after a fourth DNF of the season in Germany, victories at Assen, Silverstone and now Red Bull Ring have put Bagnaia just 44 points behind in the standings.

Leading from start to finish, Bagnaia becomes the first Ducati rider since Casey Stoner in 2008 to win three successive grands prix.

Bagnaia snatched the holeshot off the line from second on the grid as poleman Enea Bastianini slotted into second on his Gresini Ducati ahead of the second factory team Desmosedici of Jack Miller.

Miller would come through on Bastianini into Turn 3 on the fourth lap of 28, with Jorge Martin on the Pramac Ducati in fourth engaging with the Gresini rider through Turns 5 and 7.

Both vying for Miller’s seat at the factory team, Bastianini held firm into Turn 1 at the start of the fifth lap but would lose out again at the final corner.

Bastianini’s race came off the rails at this point as he struggled to stop his 2021-spec Ducati into Turn 3, which forced the trailing Joahnn Zarco on the Pramac Ducati to check up.

A second braking issue into Turn 4 forced Bastianini off into the gravel before he pulled into pitlane on lap six with suspected damage to his front wheel rim.

The battling between Martin and Bastianini put 1.3s between third place and Miller in second, who was shadowing Bagnaia by around four tenths at the start of lap six.

Miller launched a raid on the lead into Turn 9 on the following tour, but ran slightly wide and allowed Bagnaia to come back through into the lead.

A surge in pace put Martin onto the back of the leading duo come lap 11, but on lap 17 he would run off at the Turn 2 chicane.

Between laps 11 and his moment on lap 17, championship leader Fabio Quartararo had closed in having remained in sixth at the start and initially lost touch with the leading Ducati quartet.

When Martin ran off at the chicane, Quartararo drew alongside when he re-joined and took third away from the Pramac rider into Turn 3.

Then at Turn 4 Martin raised his arm as if to signal he had an issue, though he carried on – albeit dropping out of touch of the podium battle.

At the front, Bagnaia extended his lead over Miller to eight tenths and extended that to over a second in the latter stages as Quartararo ate into Miller’s lead over the Yamaha rider.

Martin rallied in the closing laps of the race and was right on the back of Quartararo at the start of lap 25 when the reigning world champion took second with a stunning pass at the chicane.

Quartararo threw his Yamaha to the outside of Miller in the first part of the chicane, which gave him the inside line for the second part.

The Yamaha rider resisted retaliation into Turn 3 as Martin failed to find a way through on Miller.

Martin’s opportunity would come into Turn 1 on the final lap, but he crashed as he went up the inside of Miller battling for third.

Quartararo, meanwhile, ripped half-a-second out of Bagnaia’s lead, but could do nothing to overhaul the Ducati rider as the pair crossed the finish line split by 0.492s.

Miller was left in a comfortable third following Martin’s crash, the Pramac rider remounting to finish 10th.

Luca Marini charged through from 13th on the grid to fourth on his VR46 Ducati for his best MotoGP result ahead of Zarco, with Aleix Espargaro recovering to sixth after a bad start on his Aprilia caused by a failure to engage his front holeshot device.

Espargaro is now 32 points behind Quartararo following the Yamaha rider’s run to second at the Red Bull Ring.

Last year’s Austrian GP winner Brad Binder was seventh on his KTM ahead of Suzuki’s Alex Rins, with Marco Bezzecchi ninth on the second VR46 bike.

Behind Martin was Gresini rookie Fabio Di Giannantonio, with Miguel Oliveira (KTM), Maverick Vinales (Aprilia), LCR Honda’s Alex Marquez and the RNF Yamaha of Andrea Dovizioso completed the top 15.

Both factory Honda team riders Pol Espargaro and Stefan Bradl missed out on points in 16th and 17th, with Tech 3’s Raul Fernandez, Aprilia test rider Lorenzo Savadori and Remy Gardner on the sister Tech 3 KTM the last of the classified runners down to 20th.

Yamaha’s Franco Morbidelli was a late crasher at Turn 2, with Darryn Binder (RNF), Takaaki Nakagami (LCR) and Suzuki’s Joan Mir also falling out of the race.

Mir was taken to the medical centre for checks, where initial scans have revealed a fracture in his right ankle.

Austrian GP - Race results:

Cla Rider Bike Gap
1 Italy Francesco Bagnaia Ducati  
2 France Fabio Quartararo Yamaha 0.492
3 Australia Jack Miller Ducati 2.163
4 Italy Luca Marini Ducati 8.348
5 France Johann Zarco Ducati 8.821
6 Spain Aleix Espargaro Aprilia 11.287
7 South Africa Brad Binder KTM 11.642
8 Spain Alex Rins Suzuki 11.780
9 Italy Marco Bezzecchi Ducati 16.987
10 Spain Jorge Martin Ducati 17.144
11 Italy Fabio Di Giannantonio Ducati 17.471
12 Portugal Miguel Oliveira KTM 18.035
13 Spain Maverick Viales Aprilia 20.012
14 Spain Alex Marquez Honda 26.880
15 Italy Andrea Dovizioso Yamaha 29.744
16 Spain Pol Espargaro Honda 30.994
17 Germany Stefan Bradl Honda 37.960
18 Spain Ral Fernndez KTM 42.082
19 Italy Lorenzo Savadori Aprilia 46.666
20 Australia Remy Gardner KTM 1 Lap
21 Italy Franco Morbidelli Yamaha  
22 South Africa Darryn Binder Yamaha  
23 Japan Takaaki Nakagami Honda  
24 Italy Enea Bastianini Ducati  
25 Spain Joan Mir Suzuki  
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