Francesco Bagnaia extended his lead in the MotoGP World Championship following a dominant performance following a multiple pile-up in the Sprint race in Austria at the Red Bull Ring.
The Lenovo Ducati rider grabbed the lead from pole and never looked back as he gradually pulled away at the front to win comfortably from Red Bull KTM’s Brad Binder, with Jorge Martin rounding out the first three on the Pramac Ducati.
Martin, though, was under scrutiny following a crash at the beginning of the race at Turn 1, with Marco Bezzecchi (VR46 Ducati), Miguel Oliveira (RNF Aprilia) and Johann Zarco (Pramac Ducati) all crashing out.
The incident unfolded when Martin made an aggressive move on the brakes on the inside of Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo into the first corner, leaving the French rider with no room and creating a domino effect as he bumped into Maverick Vinales, who made a terrible start from the front row on the Aprilia.
Vinales stayed upright but lost further ground, while Quartararo dropped to 20th.
Martin escaped unscathed from the melee, although the Pramac rider was placed under investigation by the FIM Stewards.
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Later, Martin was involved in another flashpoint on lap seven following contact with VR46 Ducati’s Luca Marini, who crashed out of third.
The incident happened in front of team owner Valentino Rossi, who had his head in his hands after seeing of his riders were ruled out of the race.
The clash was reviewed by the Stewards, but no further action was taken against Martin.
The six-rider pile-up at the beginning of the Sprint shootout changed the context of the race, with Bagnaia and Binder breaking clear and opening a gap of 0.6s over Jack Miller (Red Bull KTM) and Marini, while Martin was 0.8s further back in fourth.
A mistake by Miller on lap six allowed Marini and Martin through in the battle for third as Gresini Ducati’s Alex Marquez tried to close on the trio in sixth.
The luckless Quartararo received a Long Lap penalty for irresponsible riding after diving underneath Aprilia wildcard rider Lorenzo Savadori, who crashed out on the factory RS-GP23.
Quartararo served the penalty on lap 12 and dropped to 16th, with the former champion eventually finishing 15th.
The leaders were now strung out, with Bagnaia almost two seconds up on Binder, who in turn was 2.6s clear of Marini. Alex Marquez was a further 2.2s further behind in fourth.
Title pacesetter Bagnaia wrapped up his fourth Sprint victory of the season to increase his lead to 46 points over Martin going into Sunday’s main race at round 10.
Aussie Miller came home in fifth behind Marquez, while Pol Espargaro – who will serve a three-place grid penalty in Sunday’s race after impeding Marc Marquez in practice – rode a strong race on the GasGas Tech3 KTM in sixth.
British GP winner Aleix Espargaro held off Aprilia team-mate Vinales for seventh with Franco Morbidelli (Monster Energy Yamaha) and Repsol Honda’s Marquez finalising the top 10.
Fabio De Giannantonio (Gresini Ducati), Joan Mir (Repsol Honda), Enea Bastianini (Lenovo Ducati), Raul Fernandez (RNF Aprilia) and Quartararo were the top 15.
Augusto Fernandez (GasGas Tech3 KTM) received a Long Lap penalty for exceeding track limits and finished 17th behind LCR Honda’s Iker Lecuona, who is deputising for the injured Alex Rins.
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