MotoGP

Bagnaia gets third straight MotoGP win as Quartararo chases

by Valentin Khorounzhiy
5 min read

Ducati MotoGP rider Francesco Bagnaia made it three wins on the trot in the Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring – but championship leader Fabio Quartararo minimised the damage to his title bid with an impressive second place.

Quartararo needed just one proper on-track overtake to move up from an early sixth to an eventual second, but the overtake itself was a marquee move on Bagnaia’s team-mate Jack Miller.

It means Quartararo heads out of Austria with 32 points in hand over nearest rival Aleix Espargaro, and 44 points over Bagnaia.

At the start, Bagnaia picked off Gresini’s poleman Enea Bastianini on the run to Turn 1, as Ducati kept its leading quartet in front – with Quartararo failing to make inroads against the Desmosedicis off the line, and instead getting picked off by Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales at Turn 9.

The Ducatis broke a second clear of the chasing pack very shortly, but once Jack Miller cleared Bastianini for third, it set up a duel between Bastianini and his Ducati 2023 seat rival Jorge Martin – allowing the two red factory bikes to establish a gap of their own.

But that was the least of Bastianini’s problems, his year-old Ducati soon slowing with what was reportedly a deflating front tyre and forcing him to drop out of the Martin battle and out of the race.

Out front, Miller challenged Bagnaia for the lead at Turn 9 on the ninth lap, going in deep enough to allow his works team-mate to sweep back ahead. And as the Aussie shadowed Bagnaia over the next few laps, Martin closed back in on the factory Desmosedicis.

Yet Quartararo – who had reclaimed his lost position when Vinales ran badly wide at Turn 4 – was now in the mix, too, and when Martin overcooked an attempt to overtake Miller at the new-for-2022 chicane, Quartararo happily swept by the Pramac rider.

Having weathered Miller’s brief onslaught, Bagnaia managed to quickly put a second between himself and Miller, and soon it was his team-mate coming under major pressure from Quartararo’s less powerful but smoother Yamaha.

And with four laps to go, Quartararo launched his M1 into the new chicane, managing to get the inside line through the second part of the complex and consolidating the position, aided by Martin wasting no time in challenging Miller for third.

With Bagnaia and Quartararo eventually separated by half a second at the chequered flag, Miller finished what ended up a fairly comfortable third – because Martin’s lunge down the inside of Turn 1 on the final lap ended with him crashing.

VR46 Ducati rider Luca Marini went from 13th to fourth for the best finish of his MotoGP career so far, while Martin’s Pramac team-mate Johann Zarco recovered from a very poor opening lap to salvage fifth place.

Title hopeful Espargaro had a holeshot device issue off the line and therefore was down to 11th on the opening lap.

He moved up and down the order as the grand prix unfolded, eventually narrowly hanging on to sixth place over KTM’s Brad Binder and Suzuki’s Alex Rins as the highest-placed finisher running a soft rear tyre.

Marco Bezzecchi (VR46), a remounting Martin and Fabio Di Giannantonio (Gresini) made it seven Ducati riders in the top 11.

Vinales’ Turn 4 mistake had only relegated him to eighth, but he struggled badly for pace after that, ending up a muted 13th behind Miguel Oliveira.

Gresini-bound LCR rider Alex Marquez was the sole Honda rider to score in 14th, while Andrea Dovizioso (RNF Yamaha) picked up a point for 15th in his penultimate MotoGP start.

Suzuki’s rider Joan Mir recorded a remarkable sixth DNF in nine races, and did so very quickly, crashing out at Turn 4 while running seventh on the opening lap.

Mir revealed after the race that subsequent medical checks showed “bone fragments and fractures in my ankle”, with the 2020 champion set to undergo further assessments on Monday.

Also crashing were Franco Morbidelli (Yamaha), Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda), Darryn Binder (RNF Yamaha) and Remy Gardner (Tech3 KTM), although Gardner did rejoin to finish 20th.

Race Results

Pos Name Team Bike Laps Laps Led Total Time Fastest Lap Pitstops Pts
1 Francesco Bagnaia Ducati Lenovo Team Ducati 28 28 42m14.886s 1m30.027s 0 25
2 Fabio Quartararo Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 28 0 +0.492s 1m29.891s 0 20
3 Jack Miller Ducati Lenovo Team Ducati 28 0 +2.163s 1m30.055s 0 16
4 Luca Marini Mooney VR46 Racing Team Ducati 28 0 +8.348s 1m30.082s 0 13
5 Johann Zarco Pramac Racing Ducati 28 0 +8.821s 1m29.985s 0 11
6 Aleix Espargaró Aprilia Racing Aprilia 28 0 +11.287s 1m29.914s 0 10
7 Brad Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM 28 0 +11.642s 1m30.33s 0 9
8 Alex Rins Team SUZUKI ECSTAR Suzuki 28 0 +11.78s 1m30.116s 0 8
9 Marco Bezzecchi Mooney VR46 Racing Team Ducati 28 0 +16.987s 1m30.302s 0 7
10 Jorge Martin Pramac Racing Ducati 28 0 +17.144s 1m29.854s 0 6
11 Fabio Di Giannantonio Gresini Racing MotoGP Ducati 28 0 +17.471s 1m30.434s 0 5
12 Miguel Oliveira Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM 28 0 +18.035s 1m30.446s 0 4
13 Maverick Viñales Aprilia Racing Aprilia 28 0 +20.012s 1m30.102s 0 3
14 Alex Marquez LCR Honda Castrol Honda 28 0 +26.88s 1m30.686s 0 2
15 Andrea Dovizioso WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team Yamaha 28 0 +29.744s 1m30.825s 0 1
16 Pol Espargaró Repsol Honda Team Honda 28 0 +30.994s 1m30.969s 0 0
17 Stefan Bradl Repsol Honda Team Honda 28 0 +37.96s 1m30.988s 0 0
18 Raul Fernandez Tech3 KTM Factory Racing KTM 28 0 +42.082s 1m31.061s 0 0
19 Lorenzo Savadori Aprilia Racing Aprilia 28 0 +46.666s 1m31.424s 0 0
20 Remy Gardner Tech3 KTM Factory Racing KTM 27 0 +1 lap 1m30.984s 0 0
Franco Morbidelli Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 25 0 DNF 1m30.571s 0 0
Darryn Binder WithU Yamaha RNF MotoGP Team Yamaha 12 0 DNF 1m30.617s 0 0
Takaaki Nakagami LCR Honda IDEMITSU Honda 9 0 DNF 1m30.751s 0 0
Enea Bastianini Gresini Racing MotoGP Ducati 6 0 DNF 1m30.318s 0 0
Joan Mir Team SUZUKI ECSTAR Suzuki 0 0 DNF 0s 0 0
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