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The South African rider crawled to victory on slick tyres in dramatic style to win a pulse-raising home race for KTM at the Red Bull Ring. Francesco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin completed the podium places finishing second and third respectively.
Starting Grid
On pole position was last week’s winner, Jorge Martin. The Spaniard set another excellent lap around the Red Bull Ring to put his Pramac at the front of the grid. The front row was completed by championship leader, Fabio Quartararo, and Francesco Bagnaia.
On the second row, Martin’s Pramac teammate Johann Zarco started from fourth, with Marc Marquez starting in fifth and Ducati’s Jack Miller starting from sixth.
Joan Mir fronted the third row of the grid ahead of his compatriot Aleix Espargaro and KTM’s Miguel Oliveira who qualified ninth.
Just behind his teammate, Brad Binder started 10th, with Pol Espargaro and Takaaki Nakagami starting 11th and 12th respectively. Alex Rins lined up in 13th at the front of row five ahead of Alex Marquez and Enea Bastianini
Row six was occupied by Tech3’s Iker Lecuona, who qualified ahead of Luca Marini and SRT’s Valentino Rossi.
Danilo Petrucci and Cal Crutchlow started from row seven with only 20 riders participating in the Austrian Grand Prix. Yamaha’s Maverick Vinales was suspended from the weekend by his team after an unexplained irregular operation of the motorcycle at the end of last week’s race.
As It Happened
All riders started on the dry compound tyres, however, many predicted the race would become a flag-to-flag affair with rain starting to fall.
The lights went out and pole-sitter Martin got the best start and led into turn one. Quartararo had a moment on the exit of the first turn and was gobbled up by the Ducati bikes behind, but luckily for the Frenchman, he managed to hold off Bagnaia and Zarco into turn three.
Bagnaia breezed past Quartararo and Martin at turn four and into the lead of the race. Moments later, the battle for second continued as the duo behind leader Bagnaia collided at turn six which saw Quartararo drop to fifth.
Miller was next to make a move as he dived up the inside of the championship leader at turn three, a brave move that was executed perfectly that moved him up to fifth.
Corners later, Zarco leapfrogged Martin into second at turn six as Marc Marquez multiplied the Spaniard’s misery breaking into the podium places at turn nine.
On lap three, Quartararo replied to Miller’s overtake a lap earlier as the Yamaha man perfectly placed his bike up the inside of the Australian at turn six. Just a corner later, Marc Marquez made a nice move up the inside of Zarco with the Repsol Honda man moving up to second.
Zarco lost another position at the start of lap four as Martin slotted his Ducati up the inside of the Frenchman at turn one. Seconds later, the Spaniard used the potent power of his Ducati to blitz past Marc Marquez on the run to turn four.
The action at the front didn’t stop there as Quartararo overtook Zarco at turn three on lap five. The Yamaha man set himself up through turn two and utilised the slingshot which helped fire him past his championship rival.
On lap seven, Quartararo made an audacious move around the outside of Martin at turn three. A move which the Frenchman made stick as he chased leader Bagnaia.
As the rain started to fall once more, flag-to-flag running was declared on lap eight. Meanwhile, Quartararo made a brave move up the inside of Bagnaia at turn six as he gained the lead of the race.
The Frenchman only led for a handful of corners as he ran wide at turn one, gifting the race lead back to the Ducati man at the start of lap nine.
Three laps later, as the race started to simmer before an exhilarating finale, Suzuki’s Mir got up the inside of Miller at turn six into sixth place.
On lap 18, championship chaser Zarco lost the front at turn nine whilst riding in fifth and crashed out of the race.
Two laps later, Marc Marquez and Quartararo battled hard, however, the Yamaha man ran wide at turn two meaning the Spaniard promoted himself into second.
The rain started falling even more but this didn’t phase the six-time world champion as he made an incredible switch-back move on Bagnaia at turn three. The Italian soon clinched back the race lead at turn four as the pack tiptoed around the Red Bull Ring.
The following lap, Miller and Rins dived into the pits to switch to their wet bikes as grip levels deteriorated, something that caught Oliveira out at turn one as the KTM man crashed out of the race.
On lap 24, the top six bunched up as the conditions became evermore treacherous, but battling continued as Quartararo and Martin battled at turn nine with the championship leader able to hold on to third.
The Frenchman’s defence was broken at turn three on the next lap as Martin got past him. They continued to squabble at the front over places before Marquez, Martin, Quartararo, Bagnaia and Mir all switched to wet bikes at the end of lap 25.
This meant Binder led the race ahead of Aleix Espargaro, Nakagami, Rossi and Marini. However, Rossi was soon up into third place after Nakagami had a moment later that lap.
On lap 27, Marc Marquez crashed at turn one. The Spaniard lost the front of his Repsol Honda machine but fortunately was able to remount and re-join the race, eventually coming home in 15th.
Rossi fell down a handful of places as he lost out to Lecuona and Marini. Lecuona got up to second place momentarily on the final lap before Bagnaia and Martin came out of nowhere into the podium places.
In the end, it was Binder who crawled home on dry tyres to take his first victory of the season, accompanied by Bagnaia and Martin on the podium.
Rounding out the top 10 finishers were Mir, Marini, Lecuona, Quartararo, Rossi, Alex Marquez and Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro.
In the championship standings, Zarco’s premature retirement sees him to fall to fourth. Bagnaia and Mir jump up to second and third in the standings, both tied on 134 points, a whole 47 points behind runaway leader Quartararo.
Binder’s victory sees him leapfrog Vinales and Oliveira into sixth place with 98 points, and only six points behind Ducati’s Jack Miller in fifth.
What’s Next?
MotoGP takes a two-week break after an action-packed Austrian double-header before heading to Silverstone for the British Grand Prix. The last time MotoGP raced on UK soil, Alex Rins snatched victory away from Marc Marquez in a fantastic last lap battle.
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