Marc Márquez, with problems at the start, climbs from 13th to 4th position
MADRID, 18 Ago. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Italian rider Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati) won the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday, the eleventh round of the World Championship, in a weekend of absolute dominance for ‘Pecco’, who regained the lead alone, snatching it from Jorge Martín (Ducati) who was second, with Enea Bastianini (Ducati) third and Marc Márquez, in comeback mode, fourth and confirming the dominance of the Italian factory.
The MotoGP World Championship remains very open, with a 5-point gap between the new leader ‘Pecco’ Bagnaia and Jorge Martín ‘Martinator’, who this time was unable to fight against the metronome set in motion by the reigning world champion to break away and dominate this race in the same way he dominated the weekend.
Despite Martín being the pole man and having got off to a better start than in the Sprint race on Saturday, the battle between the Spaniard and Bagnaia lasted only a few laps. As soon as Bagnaia, who has won his third ’37’ of the season – winning the Sprint and the race in the same Grand Prix – decided to push and go for the fastest lap, Martín was unable to keep up with him. Nor was anyone else.
This time there was no comeback for Enea Bastianini, Bagnaia’s teammate who finished third and ‘sandwiched’ Martín on the podium. On a track, the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, which is clearly Ducati, the Italian firm showed that it is as strong as ever and placed seven riders in the ‘Top 10’ on Sunday, with Brad Binder (KTM) – fifth -, Maverick Viñales (Aprilia) – seventh – and Aleix Espargaró (Aprilia) – ninth – as ‘outsiders’.
Jorge Martín, who left Great Britain with a 3-point lead, loses his lead and leaves with a 5-point disadvantage. Few changes, beyond a new change of leader, in a World Championship that remains open and in which it is becoming confirmed that, as in 2023, there will be a ‘Pecco-Martinator’ head-to-head in the fight for the title, as Bastianini and Márquez continue to lose points compared to them.
But the Cervera native relived some great moments from the past when he put on his comeback suit. A bad start by the Catalan, with problems with his bike and the ‘holeshot’ – a device that compresses the rear shock absorber before the start – made him drop from third to thirteenth place, but on lap 17 he was already fifth.
He passed the Aprilias of Viñales and Aleix Espargaró, the KTMs of Jack Miller (including a brush in an action prior to the Australian’s fall) and Brad Binder, and even the Ducati of Bezzecchi. And he was a few laps away from fighting for a podium that would have been his, given the pace of the race, had it not been for that problem on the starting grid.
He also overtook Franco Morbidelli, whom he almost took out at the start when he came out of control at the first braking point. But it wasn’t to be, both continued and Márquez finished fourth, ahead of Binder, Bezzecchi, Viñales, Morbidelli, Aleix Espargaró and his brother and Gresini teammate Álex Márquez, who completed a ‘Top 10’ that included a great Pol Espargaró, invited by KTM to the home race for the Austrian firm and who scored points.
In fact, Pol Espargaró, who is a KTM test rider and also a regular commentator on the DAZN platform, used a possible evolution and despite the lack of pace he had a great race and a more than good weekend. He finished ahead of the GasGas (KTM bikes) of Pedro Acosta, thirteenth, and Augusto Fernández, fifteenth.
After Bagnaia’s double ‘Sprint+Race’, he leads the World Championship with 275 points, 5 more than Jorge Martín, and Enea Bastianini is already further behind with 214 points. Marc Márquez, who fell on Saturday, added 13 points on Sunday and now has 192, 22 behind Bastianini – his rival for third place – and 83 behind the leader, who already has more than three races of advantage over his teammate in 2025.