Francesco Bagnaia has beaten a fast-finishing Fabio Quartararo to victory in the Austrian MotoGP.

The Italian led virtually all 28 laps around the Red Bull Ring although his lead was only 0.492s at the chequered flag, with Ducati Lenovo team-mate Jack Miller completing the podium at another 1.671s back.

Quartararo’s championship lead is up to 32 points given Aleix Espargaro finished sixth on the day, with Bagnaia 12 points further back after his third straight victory.

At lights out, ‘Pecco’ had got the jump from the middle of the front row to lead pole-sitter Enea Bastianini, Miller, and Jorge Martin in an all-Ducati top four, with Maverick Viñales (Aprilia Racing) passing Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha) for fifth before the end of Lap 1.

Aleix Espargaro overtook Luca Marini (Mooney VR46 Ducati) for seventh at the beginning of Lap 2, despite a sluggish start due to a failure to engaged the holeshot device on his Aprilia Racing RS-GP.

Miller passed Bastianini on Lap 4 at Turn 3 and Prima Pramac’s Martin eventually wrested fourth from his Gresini counterpart on Lap 5.

It got worse for ‘La Bestia’ on Lap 6 when he ran wide at Turn 3 then off completely at Turn 4 due to front wheel damage which caused the tyre to go flat.

The Italian would pit and retire at the end of that lap, meaning Quartararo was fourth and Espargaro fifth given they had also not long profited from a small error for Viñales.

Miller went under Bagnaia on Lap 7 at Turn 9 but could not make the pass stick, as they ran alone at the head of the field.

Martin, however, caught them on Lap 11 and Quartararo caught him on Lap 15.

Quartararo grabbed third spot when the ‘Martinator’ made a hash of the new chicane on Lap 17, and then Martin even briefly raised his arm, a signal which can mean mechanical problem, but pressed on.

It took about three laps for Quartararo to close back up to Miller, before ‘El Diablo’ mugged the Australian through the chicane on Lap 25, at which point Bagnaia had stretched his lead to 1.6s.

Despite the Red Bull Ring being regarded as a Ducati track, Quartararo started to reel Bagnaia in, but ran out of laps to make a real nuisance of himself and had to settle for second place.

Not settling for anything was Martin, but he asked too much of his front tyre when he went up the inside of Miller at Turn 1 on Lap 28, and crashed.

The Queenslander thus took third, from Luca Marini (Mooney VR46 Ducati) and Johann Zarco (Prima Pramac Ducati), while Espargaro eventually made it home in sixth after spending about half the race in fifth spot.

Rounding out the top 10 were Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM), Alex Rins (Suzuki Ecstar), Marco Bezzecchi (Mooney VR46 Ducati), and Martin, who was able to remount, while Viñales faded to 13th.

Remy Gardner (Tech3 KTM) finished 20th after an early spill, while Joan Mir (Suzuki Ecstar) cartwheeled out of the race on Lap 1.

Franco Morbidelli (Monster Energy Yamaha), Darryn Binder (WithU RNF Yamaha), and Takaaki Nakagami (Idemitsu LCR Honda), were also DNFs after hitting the deck.

Next up is Round 14, the San Marino Grand Prix, at Misano on September 2-4.

Race results: Austrian MotoGP

Race winner: 28 laps

Riders’ championship