Marc Marquez continued his dominance in Saturday afternoon races by landing his sixth successive victory in the Austrian MotoGP Sprint.
Marquez overtook younger brother Alex Marquez with five laps to go to ensure a third successive Sprint victory for the factory Ducati team at the Red Bull Ring circuit.
Maverick Vinales withdrew from the Sprint, as well as the remainder of the weekend, after struggling with his shoulder injury throughout the opening sessions in Spielberg, leaving the grid with 20 riders.
It was Alex Marquez who made the best start to the race of the riders on the front row, immediately passing Marco Bezzecchi into the first corner.
However, Francesco Bagnaia spun up on the start and was demoted to 14th by Turn 1 from the front row, while Fermin Aldeguer also suffered from the same issue directly behind the Italian.
Marquez also made a good start from the second row, and used his momentum up the hill to make an overtake on Bezzecchi at Turn 2 to move behind his brother in the lead.
Bezzecchi faced further misery at the chicane one lap later, as Pedro Acosta made a lunge on the Italian to take the final spot on the podium.
Further down the order, Bagnaia was forced to make overtakes after his difficult start and passed Jack Miller into 14th.
However, the double World Champion was forced to surrender the position a few laps later to reigning champion Jorge Martin, with Joan Mir also progressing past the Ducati rider.
An issue with the Italian’s bike became prevalent as the laps continued to tick down, as he dropped further down the order and eventually pulled into the pits to retire from the Sprint race.
Back at the front of the field, the elder Marquez began to find the rhythm and closed the gap that the Gresini rider had built up.
With five laps to go, the Ducati rider made his move at Turn 3, taking the lead of the race and leaving his younger brother no opportunity to respond.
As Marquez pulled out an advantage at the head of the field, the reigning World Champion began to make moves further down the order, passing Fabio Quartararo before attempting to close the gap to Johann Zarco in the last points position.
As the chequered flag came out, Marquez crossed the line to seal his 12th Sprint victory of the campaign despite starting outside the front row of the grid.
The younger Marquez retained his second-place finish, while Acosta completed the podium in third.
Bezzecchi finished fourth after losing out in the opening laps, with Brad Binder completing the top five after a successful home Sprint race for the KTM team.
After suffering wheelspin on the start, Aldeguer crossed the line in sixth ahead of Enea Bastianini in seventh.
Fabio Di Giannantonio gained eight places to finish the Sprint in eighth, while Zarco held off Martin’s challenge for the final points position in ninth.
Quartararo narrowly missed out top 10, as the Frenchman edged ahead of the factory Honda pair of Luca Marini in 12th and Joan Mir in 13th.
Franco Morbidelli suffered from a few errors throughout the Sprint and finished 14th, with Ai Ogura crossing the line in 15th.
Alex Rins ended the race in 16th, as the Pramac Yamaha riders completed the standings as Jack Miller took the flag in 17th and Miguel Oliveira rounded out the finishers in 18th.
Raul Fernandez appeared to suffer from a ride height device issue while running in 5th and joined Bagnaia in retiring from the race due to technical issues.
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