Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia ran unopposed to victory in the Austrian MotoGP Sprint at the Red Bull Ring as his title rival Jorge Martin succumbed to a long-lap penalty and Marc Marquez crashed out late on.
A third Sprint win of the season saw Bagnaia reclaim his title lead on a countback of wins, as Martin and Marquez likely rued some over-exuberant riding.
Pramac’s Martin was the pole man for the Sprint around the short, fast-paced Red Bull Ring circuit, lining up alongside Bagnaia and Gresini’s Marquez.
The GP24 Ducati had the edge over the whole field during practice and qualifying so all eyes were on Martin and Bagnaia – could Marquez keep pace on his year-old Ducati GP23?
KTM’s Jack Miller was the filling in an Aprilia sandwich on the second row, with Aleix Espargaro and Maverick Vinales lining up fourth and sixth respectively.
14 Laps of MotoGP Sprint action roared into life with Bagnaia taking the whole shot, Marquez running deep and Martin coming out of Turn 1 in second.
Miller had an awful launch but held onto fifth, with Gresini’s Alex Marquez not so lucky, going down at Turn 2.
Atop the hill at Turn 3, Martin took to the lead, with Bagnaia and Marquez tucked close in behind until Turn 9, where the reigning champion lunged forward, running deep to concede a short-lived lead into Turn 10.
It was hard going at the front – with Martin running deep into the chicane on Lap 2, having to head to the run-off, losing the lead in the process, but not one second of time as per the rules when going off, meaning a penalty could go his way.
Bagnaia responded by setting the fastest lap and opening up a three-tenth gap going into Lap 3.
Meanwhile, Martin and Marquez enjoyed a nine-tenth gap over the rest of the field, which was headed by Espargaro and Miller.
A personal best on Lap 3 saw Martin get some breathing room over Marquez, with a stewards investigation looming over the Pramac rider.
Six laps in and the order at the front remained the same but Martin, chasing Bagnaia, was hit with an inevitable long-lap penalty due to his Lap 2 excursion at the chicane.
Marquez, just eight tenths behind Martin was set to inherit second as he waited for his Spanish rival to take his penalty.
Espargaro however, was too far back, sitting two seconds adrift of the #93 Gresini rider in fourth.
Martin duly took his long lap penalty on Lap 8, riding the long route at Turn 1 and emerging just in front of Espargaro’s Aprilia.
That gave Bagnaia, who was controlling proceedings with aplomb, even more breathing room to the tune of 1.7s over Marquez.
Marquez, striving for his sixth runner-up finish in this year’s Sprints, enjoyed a 2.6s gap over Martin at the start of Lap 9.
Martin was making light work of dropping Espargaro, who once again fell into a no man’s land race.
Further back was Miller, running his best race of the year, holding onto fifth with Pramac’s Franco Morbidelli and Ducati’s Enea Bastianini close behind.
Back to the front and it was bad news for Marquez fans as the Gresini rider lost the front of his year-old Ducati at Turn 3 amid an ill-fated chase of Bagnaia on the ever-impressive GP24.
As the rest of the field continued on Lap 11, Marquez’s win-it-or-bin-it strategy saw him retire to the pit lane, followed by backmarker Alex Rins.
That meant Miller was now in an intense battle for fourth and he still had company in the form of Bastianini, Morbidelli and KTM team-mate Brad Binder, who had joined the party.
There was little Miller could do however when Bastianini slotted into fourth at Turn 9 at the end of Lap 12.
Bagnaia had nothing to worry about though and cruised around the Red Bull Ring for the last two few laps of the Sprint to take the full compliment of 12 points, over three seconds ahead of Martin, who no doubt would be replaying his Lap 2 chicane entry speeds in his head.
The title-fighting duo moved level on points once the chequered flag fell, further painting the intriguing title picture.
Coming home in third was a delighted Espargaro with Bastianini coming home in fourth.
Miller held onto a fine fifth, ahead of Morbidelli and Binder with VR46 Ducati’s Marco Bezzecchi taking eighth.
KTM wildcard rider Pol Espargaro took the final point on offer in the Sprint, finishing an impressive ninth.
Tech3 GasGas rider Pedro Acosta rounded out the top-10, albeit 16.6s off of the win in what has been a tricky weekend thus far for the Spanish rookie.
Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales took 11th with Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo taking a promising 12th for Yamaha amid the Japanese marque’s rebuilding phase.
Next up was the Trackhouse Racing Aprilia duo of Miguel Oliveira and Raul Fernandez, who led the LCR Honda pair of Johann Zarco and Takaaki Nakagami.
Repsol Honda rider Luca Marini took 17th ahead of Aprilia’s wildcard pilot Lorenzo Savadori and Honda’s Joan Mir.
After his Lap 1 tumble, Gresini’s A. Marquez came home in 20th as GasGas’ Augusto Fernandez, Rins, M. Marquez and Honda wildcard Stefan Bradl failed to finish.
