Race report
MotoGP Austrian GP
Red Bull Ring MotoGP: Bagnaia beats Quartararo for third straight win
Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia held onto a third successive victory in 2022 at the MotoGP Austrian Grand Prix as Fabio Quartararo took a damage-limiting second at the Red Bull Ring.
Lewis Duncan
Edited: Aug 21, 2022, 7:01 PM
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Having been 91 points down on Quartararo in the championship after a fourth DNF of the season in Germany, victories at Assen, Silverstone and now Red Bull Ring have put Bagnaia just 44 points behind in the standings.
Leading from start to finish, Bagnaia becomes the first Ducati rider since Casey Stoner in 2008 to win three successive grands prix.
Bagnaia snatched the holeshot off the line from second on the grid as poleman Enea Bastianini slotted into second on his Gresini Ducati ahead of the second factory team Desmosedici of Jack Miller.
Miller would come through on Bastianini into Turn 3 on the fourth lap of 28, with Jorge Martin on the Pramac Ducati in fourth engaging with the Gresini rider through Turns 5 and 7.
Both vying for Miller’s seat at the factory team, Bastianini held firm into Turn 1 at the start of the fifth lap but would lose out again at the final corner.
Bastianini’s race came off the rails at this point as he struggled to stop his 2021-spec Ducati into Turn 3, which forced the trailing Joahnn Zarco on the Pramac Ducati to check up.
A second braking issue into Turn 4 forced Bastianini off into the gravel before he pulled into pitlane on lap six with suspected damage to his front wheel rim.
The battling between Martin and Bastianini put 1.3s between third place and Miller in second, who was shadowing Bagnaia by around four tenths at the start of lap six.
Miller launched a raid on the lead into Turn 9 on the following tour, but ran slightly wide and allowed Bagnaia to come back through into the lead.
A surge in pace put Martin onto the back of the leading duo come lap 11, but on lap 17 he would run off at the Turn 2 chicane.
Between laps 11 and his moment on lap 17, championship leader Fabio Quartararo had closed in having remained in sixth at the start and initially lost touch with the leading Ducati quartet.
When Martin ran off at the chicane, Quartararo drew alongside when he re-joined and took third away from the Pramac rider into Turn 3.
Then at Turn 4 Martin raised his arm as if to signal he had an issue, though he carried on – albeit dropping out of touch of the podium battle.
At the front, Bagnaia extended his lead over Miller to eight tenths and extended that to over a second in the latter stages as Quartararo ate into Miller’s lead over the Yamaha rider.
Martin rallied in the closing laps of the race and was right on the back of Quartararo at the start of lap 25 when the reigning world champion took second with a stunning pass at the chicane.
Quartararo threw his Yamaha to the outside of Miller in the first part of the chicane, which gave him the inside line for the second part.
The Yamaha rider resisted retaliation into Turn 3 as Martin failed to find a way through on Miller.
Martin’s opportunity would come into Turn 1 on the final lap, but he crashed as he went up the inside of Miller battling for third.
Quartararo, meanwhile, ripped half-a-second out of Bagnaia’s lead, but could do nothing to overhaul the Ducati rider as the pair crossed the finish line split by 0.492s.
Miller was left in a comfortable third following Martin’s crash, the Pramac rider remounting to finish 10th.
Luca Marini charged through from 13th on the grid to fourth on his VR46 Ducati for his best MotoGP result ahead of Zarco, with Aleix Espargaro recovering to sixth after a bad start on his Aprilia caused by a failure to engage his front holeshot device.
Espargaro is now 32 points behind Quartararo following the Yamaha rider’s run to second at the Red Bull Ring.
Last year’s Austrian GP winner Brad Binder was seventh on his KTM ahead of Suzuki’s Alex Rins, with Marco Bezzecchi ninth on the second VR46 bike.
Behind Martin was Gresini rookie Fabio Di Giannantonio, with Miguel Oliveira (KTM), Maverick Vinales (Aprilia), LCR Honda’s Alex Marquez and the RNF Yamaha of Andrea Dovizioso completed the top 15.
Both factory Honda team riders Pol Espargaro and Stefan Bradl missed out on points in 16th and 17th, with Tech 3’s Raul Fernandez, Aprilia test rider Lorenzo Savadori and Remy Gardner on the sister Tech 3 KTM the last of the classified runners down to 20th.
Yamaha’s Franco Morbidelli was a late crasher at Turn 2, with Darryn Binder (RNF), Takaaki Nakagami (LCR) and Suzuki’s Joan Mir also falling out of the race.
Mir was taken to the medical centre for checks, where initial scans have revealed a fracture in his right ankle.
Austrian GP - Race results:
Cla Rider Bike Gap 1 Francesco Bagnaia
Ducati 2 Fabio Quartararo
Yamaha 0.492 3 Jack Miller
Ducati 2.163 4 Luca Marini
Ducati 8.348 5 Johann Zarco
Ducati 8.821 6 Aleix Espargaro
Aprilia 11.287 7 Brad Binder
KTM 11.642 8 Alex Rins
Suzuki 11.780 9 Marco Bezzecchi
Ducati 16.987 10 Jorge Martin
Ducati 17.144 11 Fabio Di Giannantonio
Ducati 17.471 12 Miguel Oliveira
KTM 18.035 13 Maverick Viales
Aprilia 20.012 14 Alex Marquez
Honda 26.880 15 Andrea Dovizioso
Yamaha 29.744 16 Pol Espargaro
Honda 30.994 17 Stefan Bradl
Honda 37.960 18 Ral Fernndez
KTM 42.082 19 Lorenzo Savadori
Aprilia 46.666 20 Remy Gardner
KTM 1 Lap 21 Franco Morbidelli
Yamaha 22 Darryn Binder
Yamaha 23 Takaaki Nakagami
Honda 24 Enea Bastianini
Ducati 25 Joan Mir
Suzuki View full results
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