Pecco Bagnaia once again swept the Spielberg Red Bull Ring. The world champion did not leave even the crumbs to his rivals in Austria: victory on Sunday, the fifth in 10 races, with pole position and best lap, leader in all laps, and victory also on Saturday in the Sprint Race.
In other words, the Italian has already accumulated 68 points against Marco Bezzecchi and 62 against Jorge Martín, who had to settle for seventh place due to the punishment of the long-lap. The 2023 title has more and more Ducati red from Pecco.
The oppressive heat (31ºC), the high temperature of the asphalt (47ºC) and the length of the race (28 laps) made it advisable to take it easy. But at the start the KTMs came out like missiles, like in the Sprint, Binder and Miller behind a Bagnaia who held the first position on pole. Àlex Márquez was fourth after passing Marini.
Jorge Martín, who started 12th, had to serve the punishment of a long-lap for the incident on the first corner in the Sprint Race on Saturday. The Spaniard made an excellent start and was eighth, then seventh, a position from which he paid his penalty on the fourth lap. It cost him six places, falling behind to 13th, behind Oliveira and ahead of Pol Espargaró.
Bagnaia began to mark better race laps, but with Binder stuck, not like Saturday. Both opened a gap of 1.7s over Alex Márquez and Bezzecchi, and these two 1 second over Mariniy Miller (v. 7/28). Martín tried to recover positions fighting with Quartararo in 11th position. The man from Madrid got rid of the Frenchman on lap 9.
It was on lap 10/28 when Bagnaia began to distance himself from Binder, three-five tenths to start, which in one lap was already seven-eight. The Italian's escape was underway. Halfway through the race (v. 14/28) he already accumulated 1.2 seconds.
The spectacular comeback was signed by Martín. After beating Quartararo, he ate Zarco, Miller and Bastianini to place himself in eighth position (v. 13/28), which would be seventh by beating his friend Aleix Espargaró (v. 14). The man from Madrid was very plugged in, having passed halfway through the race and was where he had left him before the sanction.
Bagnaia already escaped for the victory with 8 laps to go (he was 3 seconds ahead of Binder), the excitement centered on the fight for the third place on the podium between Àlex Márquez, Bezzecchi and Marini; three Ducati rolling in a handkerchief. The VR46 rider, third in the World Championship, attacked Márquez, who was suffering with more worn soft tires behind.
Bez gave the ax to the man from Cervera in turn 9 to take third place on the podium and the Catalan could no longer react. Àlex was also squeezed by Marini fighting for fourth place, which ended up being Rossi's brother, witness of the maneuver at the foot of the track.
One of the news of the race in Austria was the 12th place of Marc Márquez, that is, the first Sunday race that ends this year. This means the first point of the multi-champion since Malaysia 2022, 300 days ago. This season he had (on Sunday) four crashes and five absences in the race.
