SPIELBERG: Italian Ducati rider Francesco Bagnaia raced clear to win an “incredible” Austrian MotoGP sprint on Saturday and overtake Jorge Martin at the top of the championship standings.

Spaniard Martin of Ducati-Pramac finished second, while compatriot Aleix Espargaro of Aprilia completed the podium.

The reigning two-time MotoGP champion Bagnaia started the grid in second place and completed the 14 laps in 20 minutes 59.768 seconds, 4.673sec faster than Martin.

The Turin-born rider now sits top of the championship standings, but is tied on 250 points with Martin.

“Incredible, but the most incredible thing we did is the best lap time during the battle, a 1:28.7, that’s two-tenths lower than the pole position time last year,” said 27-year-old Bagnaia of his third sprint win of the season. “The fight was intense and our pace was incredible... I’m very happy.”

Having clinched pole with a lap record after going fastest in qualifying, Martin was slow getting away when the lights went out while Bagnaia turned on the aggression as soon as he shot off the line.

Martin received a long-lap penalty for failing to lose one second after cutting the chicane at turn two and finished second. He had looked on course to finish third until Marquez crashed out with four laps remaining.

There was no stopping Bagnaia once Martin’s penalty had been served and he opened up a sizeable gap over the Spaniard and crossed the finish line well ahead of the chasing pack.

“It was a difficult race for sure,” said the 26-year-old Martin. “I think it would have been a much better show without the long lap penalty because I had something left to try, I was really close to Pecco [Bagnaia]. The first two laps were amazing, I really enjoyed that.”

Enea Bastianini, fresh off a sprint-GP double at the British MotoGP, finished fourth on his Ducati and KTM’s Australian rider Jack Miller raced through in fifth place.

Italian Franco Morbidelli (Ducati-Pramac), South African Brad Binder (KTM) and Marco Bezzecchi of Italy (Ducati-VR46) came in sixth, seventh and eighth respectively.

And the top 10 was rounded off by Spaniards Pol Espargaro (KTM) and Pedro Acosta (GasGas-Tech3).

Six-time world champion Marc Marquez started third but slid off his Ducati-Gresini bike with five laps to go and did not finish.

Published in Dawn, August 18th, 2024