MotoGP world champion Francesco Bagnaia has won the Austrian Grand Prix for the third time in a row. The Italian triumphed comfortably in Spielberg on Sunday ahead of his Spanish world championship rival Jorge Martin, with another Ducati rider, Italian Enea Bastianini, coming third. Superstar Marc Marquez had to settle for fourth place and finished the eleventh of 20 races of the season in the premier motorcycle class just ahead of the best KTM rider, Brad Binder.
“It’s fantastic to win here three times in a row,” said Bagnaia in the finish area, overjoyed. The pace he and Martin had set was incredible. “I was just a little bit better than him.” In the end, the champion of the past two years was exactly 3.232 seconds faster than his pursuer, while Bastianini was already 7.357 seconds behind. Martin was annoyed about missing out on victory. “There is no excuse, I’m frustrated. I tried to fight with Pecco.”
150,000 spectators came to Spielberg
A total of 150,187 spectators came to the Red Bull Ring over the entire race weekend (67,271 on Sunday), significantly fewer than last year (173,017).
In the World Championship standings, sprint winner Bagnaia, who gave Ducati its ninth GP victory at the Red Bull Ring, extended his lead to five points. For the eighth time in a row, three Ducati riders were on the podium, something that had never happened before. KTM’s future hope Pedro Acosta had to settle for 13th place after a botched qualifying. Jack Miller, who will have to give up his place in the KTM factory team to Acosta in 2025, crashed while lying in sixth place and thus gambled away a top result at the home race of the racing team from Mattighofen. Pol Espargaro, who was given a KTM wildcard, had to be satisfied with eleventh place.
In front of the eyes of motorcycle icon Valentino Rossi, KTM CEO Stefan Pierer and Jos Verstappen, the start phase took place without a crash. Martin defended his lead position for one lap, then Bagnaia overtook the Spaniard at the end of the start-finish straight. Binder got off to a dream start and improved from twelfth place on the grid by seven positions within just a few corners. It was a completely different story for Marc Marquez, who lost ten places after contact with Franco Morbidelli and had to roll up the field from thirteenth place. The eight-time motorcycle world champion, who often drives at the limit, did just that, and after 17 of 28 laps Marquez was back in fourth place.
While the leading duo were doing their laps with a comfortable lead over the rest of the competition, a dark rain cloud on the Murtal horizon added to the tension. The previous evening, a thunderstorm cell had caused torrential rain around the Red Bull Ring, but this did not happen on Sunday. Bagnaia kept Martin consistently behind with a lead of just over a second and took his seventh victory of the season in Styria.
Image: APA/Erwin Scheriau
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Image: APA/Erwin Scheriau
This article was updated on 18.8.2024 at 15:50 with the number of viewers