The Red Bull Ring has provided some very dramatic highs and lows since MotoGP returned to the rebuilt and rebranded circuit for its Austrian Grand Prix in 2016.
Everything from incredible and unexpected wins to terrifying accidents, and even an on-track rider meltdown so severe it ended a factory Yamaha deal – it’s all happened here.
And that’s established the Red Bull Ring as the most unpredictable race on the MotoGP calendar. That status was magnified a little by its disproportionate place on the schedule in recent years, as it hosted two races in both 2020 and 2021 thanks to Red Bull’s financial backing meaning it was possible to race there repeatedly without worrying about ticket sales during the pandemic recovery period.
So anything could happen when Sunday’s race begins – as this list of crazy highs and lows so far proves.
THE HIGHS
IANNONE ENDS DUCATI’S DROUGHT
In the early stages of Ducati’s MotoGP project, success had been plentiful. It won its first race only six rounds into its debut season and the successes peaked with Casey Stoner’s unexpected title win in 2007.
That run of form ended with Stoner’s departure in 2010, and the years that followed were dark times for Ducati.
By 2016, things were once again on the up. Ducati crept back into regular podium contention in 2015 with Andrea Dovizioso and Andrea Iannone, and it very much looked like one of the Italian pair would return the team to the top step sooner rather than later.
Then, for 2016, Ducati was handed a gift: a return to the Red Bull Ring for the first time since 1997.
It was a circuit where the long fast straights and relative lack of corners would very much play to the straightline speed advantage of the Desmosedici and negate its turning issues.
And it was Iannone who delivered on the day to take the team’s first win in six years and, with Dovi second, its first 1-2 since 2007.
DOVIZIOSO VS MARQUEZ (TWICE)
Ducati was buoyant after the success of 2016 and used it as a launchpad for a revitalised and re-engineered Desmosedici.
By the time the middle of the 2017 season came around, Dovizioso and Ducati had cemented themselves as title rivals to Marc Marquez and Honda, and Dovizioso had shown that he was more than capable of taking on Marquez in a last corner duel.
The Red Bull Ring duel was one of the greatest. As the Ducati and Honda went to war in the closing stages, it was Dovizioso who had the advantage over the Repsol Honda as they entered the last sector – but Marquez doesn’t give up easily.
Attempting a do-or-die block pass, Marquez did briefly lead the race – but wasn’t able to get stopped in time, allowing Dovi to hook back in front for an exceptional win.
Two years later in 2019, it looked like we were set for a repeat performance when the pair again went head to head in the final laps.
Except this time it was Marquez who led into the final sector – and Dovizioso who was able to make the move that Marquez had previously attempted stick this time for his second Red Bull Ring win from three and Ducati’s fourth Austria victory in a row.
Remarkably, between the aforementioned two showdowns, Marquez lost another last-lap Red Bull Ring duel to a Ducati – but to Jorge Lorenzo rather than Dovizioso.
THREE-WIDE FOR THE WIN
What’s better than two riders going head to head for the win in the final corner? Well, as it turns out, three riders doing the same thing!
By 2020, we’d got used to big showdowns at the Red Bull Ring, but that year delivered something special when a three-way fight between Pol Espargaro, Jack Miller and Miguel Oliveira broke out in the second half of a two-part red-flagged race.
Going into the final sector, it looked like it was Espargaro who was about to take victory and finally not only become a MotoGP race winner but also round out his time with KTM in style by delivering it a home win.
If history has taught us anything, though, it’s that leading with two corners to go in Austria is often not the best strategy…
This time, there was a twist. Miller launched a lunge on Espargaro. Going deep as he hooked it under the KTM, he pushed both of them wide – and allowed the smart Oliveira, in the right place at the right time, to cruise on through to a first victory for KTM’s satellite team Tech3.
BINDER’S SLICKS-IN-THE-WET MAGIC
Sometimes races are won by having a technical advantage over your competitors and other times by cunning, guile and intelligence.
But it’s hard to argue that Brad Binder was relying on anything other than absolute bravery when he slipped and slid his way to his second MotoGP victory – and KTM’s second home win in two years – last August.
It was Pecco Bagnaia who led Miller and Fabio Quartararo when the rain flags first came out, with perennial Sunday man Binder still picking his way through the pack in sixth.
Then with only three laps to go, Binder played a blinder and stayed on track – on slick tyres! – as everyone in front headed for the pits and wet rubber.
While he came awfully close to disaster multiple times before the chequered flag as the rain continued to pour down, the South African’s bravery and skill paid off, taking the win by a whopping 12 seconds from Bagnaia, the first of those to have pitted.
THE LOWS
A BRUSH WITH DISASTER
This weekend’s race at the Red Bull Ring features the debut of a chicane between what was Turns 1 and 2, something that is a direct result of a horrific crash in 2020 that very nearly ended the lives of two of the sport’s biggest stars.
The first of two Austria races that year, Johann Zarco was battling with Yamaha rider Franco Morbidelli when he made a bold overtake through turn two, the 215mph kink that Miller described this week as “ass-clenching”.
Their aero packages sucked Zarco and Morbidelli’s bikes together and both went down at speed.
And the track layout meant their machines were then sent hurtling into the path of both Valentino Rossi and Yamaha team-mate Maverick Vinales as they entered the next turn, only just avoiding what would have been catastrophic high speed contact.
Disaster was averted by mere centimetres and the potential consequences of either rider being a few tenths of a second slower into the corner don’t bear thinking about.
VINALES’ TERRIFYING BRAKE FAILURE
Fresh off the back of his terrifying experience only seven days prior, it’s perhaps fair to say that Vinales was hoping for a somewhat more sedate second outing at the Red Bull Ring in 2020.
However, that wasn’t to be thanks to another freak incident that also could have ended really badly.
Making a slow start to the race and dropping out of the top 10, Vinales wasn’t exactly looking comfortable during the early stages of the Styrian Grand Prix – but, as we later learned, there was a good reason for that.
A race that came to a very abrupt end! 💥
Thankfully @mvkoficial12 was able to walk away from this scary get off unscathed! 🙌#AustrianGP 🏁 pic.twitter.com/NbU63tHZSv
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) August 23, 2020
Running Brembo’s older-style (and less well-equipped for cooling) brake callipers, he started experiencing brake problems almost from the off and was trying to simply survive the race when things went spectacularly wrong.
Vinales experienced what he later described as an ‘explosion’ of his front brake system, the whole thing failing just as he started to slow from 215mph to 35mph for the circuit’s tight first corner.
Suddenly without a way to stop, he did the only thing he could do: jump from the bike and leave it to hurtle its way into the tyre wall, where it promptly exploded in flames.
RED FLAGS PREVENT FIRST WINS
The most obvious consequence of 2020’s double red-flagged races, of course, was that a number of riders were injured and others were very, very lucky indeed to avoid even more serious consequences.
But, forgotten in that chaos was the heartbreak suffered by two riders: Joan Mir and Taka Nakagami. Either could have taken a first MotoGP victory in the race stopped for Vinales’ crash and fire.
Nakagami showed strong promise throughout 2020 and looked to be on the verge of a breakthrough as he took over Honda’s lead rider duties in the absence of Marc Marquez.
Sitting second when the flags came out and looking set to pounce for the lead, he didn’t make a start anywhere near as strong in the restart and ended up seventh – and remains without a MotoGP podium to this day.
Mir was also aggrieved as he looked set to improve on his podium from the week before and pulled clear at the head of the race before Vinales’ brakes went bang.
Having not saved a fresh rear tyre for the eventuality of a red flag, though (lightning never strikes twice, right?), he didn’t have the grip to go any better than fourth when the race resumed.
Unlike Nakagami though, it all turned out pretty well for Mir later that season…
As for the red flag the week before, that one was deemed the culprit behind Espargaro’s dismay – the Spaniard having been in control of the race when it came out, only to not have “the proper tyre” for the restart.
ROSSI FINALLY CALLS IT A DAY
Look, we all knew it was coming at some point, because no good thing lasts forever – but that doesn’t mean that the news of Rossi’s retirement after an incredible 26 seasons and nine world titles was going to come painlessly to the championship that had largely become the success story it is off the back of his fame, speed and personality.
The announcing of his impending departure came at the Red Bull Ring, of all places – quite ironic for a rider with his own flavour of Monster.
With Rossi having told us all for some time that he would make his decision over whether to continue racing into 2022 over the course of the season’s summer break, it was clear the writing was on the wall the minute an exceptional press conference was scheduled for the Thursday of the first race of the second part of the season.
Love him or loathe him (there are many in both camps), Rossi’s announcement was the end of an era for MotoGP – and the start of what may well prove to be a rather difficult chapter as the series looks to bounce back from the loss of such a huge character.
VINALES’ MELTDOWN
There have been rider meltdowns in the past, many of them. But few will live in infamy in the MotoGP history books the way that Vinales’ actions at the Red Bull Ring in 2021 will, as he essentially launched himself out of a factory Yamaha seat and into Aprilia at the exact right time.
Deeply unhappy for some time at Yamaha, he’d already been trying to find an escape at the end of the season.
A good initial ride at the Austrian GP was ruined by Vinales’ Yamaha stalling on the red flag restart, and it all got too much for him – and, amazingly, he set about trying to blow up the engine of his M1 by continually over-revving it during the race.
Failing to do so (a testament to Yamaha’s engine builders), he nonetheless quickly got caught out and was instantly suspended for the following race at the Austrian track, before Yamaha finally cut all ties with him effective immediately.
That’s a move that it may live to regret considering he ended up alongside Aleix Espargaro at Aprilia just as things were finally taking off there.
PEDROSA COOKS AN APRILIA
News that former Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa was returning for a wildcard with new employer KTM at its home race was met with fanfare from the Spaniard’s many fans.
However, it was a shortlived comeback in the end – and reminded Pedrosa why he retired in the first place. It also prompted yet another Red Bull Ring red flag.
Very much there as an extension of his test rider duties and not out to push for a win, Pedrosa started from a rather distant 14th for his first race in nearly three years.
He got stuck right in to the middle of the MotoGP mid-pack knife fight when the lights went out. But it didn’t last long, as Pedrosa lost the front on the exit of Turn 3 and left his stranded KTM in the middle of the track for the luckless Lorenzo Savadori to collect.
Blinded by the nature of the corner, the Aprilia rider struck the bike and went down heavily, breaking his ankle in the process and splitting his fuel tank open to leave the track ablaze and his RS-GP completely devoured by flames.
