MotoGP: Spectacular Bagnia Wins Sprint Again

Pecco Bagnaia wins the Austrian GP Sprint race by just over two seconds ahead of Brad Binder and Jorge Martin.

After qualifying on pole position this morning, Bagnaia was able to have a great start from the best position on the grid. Alongside him was Maverick Vinales who struggled with the start and dropped down the order. From third place, Binder jumped up into second place and started chasing down the Italian rider.

After the first corner, Jack Miller was also able to capitalise on the poor start from Vinales and improved to third place.

As the riders came to take the first corner, Martin took the inside line and had contact with Fabio Quartararo who in turn touched Vinales. The Aprilia rider then had contact with Marco Bezzechi who had to retire on the next lap. Other riders that were involved in the incident were Miguel Olivera, Johan Zarco and Enea Bastianini.

Following this incident, Quartararo dropped down to twentieth position and Vinales brought up the rear of the field.

Binder continued to show his pace as he caught up to Bagnaia quickly and began to look for places on the track pass the Italian rider. Both Bagnaia and Binder began to break away from Miller in third place and by the end of the first lap, they had a one second lead over the Australian rider.

Martin was handed a track limits warning during the second lap, one of those was likely to be from the lap one turn one incident.

Nakagami crashed on the second lap and was unable to continue with the race.

Bagnaia started setting fastest lap after fastest lap and started to move ahead of Binder, leaving him about a second behind the leader.

Luca Marini caught up to Miller and started to see where the KTM rider was struggling around the circuit. As these two fought, Martin was able to catch the pair too.

Marini was able to pass Miller on the start finish straight on lap 6 and Martin was also attempting to get past too however it would be made easy for the Pramac rider when Miller ran wide at turn three. On the next lap, Martin attacked Marini into the chicane, but they touched each other, causing the Italian rider to crash out. The incident was investigated, but no action was taken.

On the ninth lap, Quartararo was given a long lap penalty for irresponsible riding. This incident occurred a few laps prior and was when he went to overtake Lorenzo Salvadori, the pair touched causing the Aprilia rider to crash out.

Quartararo took the long lap penalty on the twelfth lap and dropped down the order and was unable to make much progress due to there only being two laps left.

Zarco had to retire the bike on the penultimate lap after being involved in the first lap incident.

Bagnaia took the chequered flag 2.056 seconds ahead of Binder who in turn was 5.045 seconds ahead of Jorge Martin. Alex Marquez took fourth place after overtaking Miller. Pol Espargaro led his brother Aleix over the line to take sixth and seventh place respectively.

Vinales was able to improve to eighth place after being in last place at the end of the first lap. Franco Morbidelli and Marc Marquez rounded out the top ten

Fabio Di Giannatonio, Joan Mir and Bastianini occupied the eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth places. Raul Fernandez, Fabio Quartararo, Iker Lecuona and Augusto Fernandez completed the riders who finished the race.

2023 AUSTRIAN MOTOGP, RED BULL RING – SPRINT RACE RESULTS
POS	RIDER	NAT	TEAM	TIME/DIFF
1	Francesco Bagnaia	ITA	Ducati Lenovo (GP23)	21m 1.844s
2	Brad Binder	RSA	Red Bull KTM (RC16)	+2.056s
3	Jorge Martin	SPA	Pramac Ducati (GP23)	+5.045s
4	Alex Marquez	SPA	Gresini Ducati (GP22)	+8.252s
5	Jack Miller	AUS	Red Bull KTM (RC16)	+11.365s
6	Pol Espargaro	SPA	Tech3 GASGAS (RC16)	+11.816s
7	Aleix Espargaro	SPA	Aprilia Racing (RS-GP23)	+11.960s
8	Maverick Viñales	SPA	Aprilia Racing (RS-GP23)	+11.984s
9	Franco Morbidelli	ITA	Monster Yamaha (YZR-M1)	+13.634s
10	Marc Marquez	SPA	Repsol Honda (RC213V)	+14.435s
11	Fabio Di Giannantonio	ITA	Gresini Ducati (GP22)	+15.251s
12	Joan Mir	SPA	Repsol Honda (RC213V)	+16.740s
13	Enea Bastianini	ITA	Ducati Lenovo (GP23)	+18.825s
14	Raul Fernandez	SPA	RNF Aprilia (RS-GP22)	+19.536s
15	Fabio Quartararo	FRA	Monster Yamaha (YZR-M1)	+22.321s
16	Iker Lecuona	SPA	LCR Honda (RC213V)	+25.593s
17	Augusto Fernandez	SPA	Tech3 GASGAS (RC16)*	+25.789s
	Johann Zarco	FRA	Pramac Ducati (GP23)	DNF
	Luca Marini	ITA	Mooney VR46 Ducati (GP22)	DNF
	Lorenzo Savadori	ITA	Aprilia Factory (RS-GP23)	DNF
	Takaaki Nakagami	JPN	LCR Honda (RC213V)	DNF
	Marco Bezzecchi	ITA	Mooney VR46 Ducati (GP22)	DNF
	Miguel Oliveira	POR	RNF Aprilia (RS-GP22)	DNF

Featured Image courtesy of Ducati