Bagnaia wins Austrian Grand Prix extending championship lead

Francesco Bagnaia continued to extend his championship lead with a fifth victory in the 2023 MotoGP season after edging KTM’s Brad Binder at the Red Bull Ring.

Factory Ducati rider Francesco Bagnaia was in a league of his own at the Austrian Grand Prix as he won both races at the Red Bull Ring for a double.

The Italian rider replicated his sprint race victory from the previous day by getting off to a quick start from pole position and fending off Binder’s advances in the early laps. Bagnaia then settled into a steady pace as he tried to save his rubber for the race’s closing laps.

Binder tried to hold on to his tyres and stay in contention while Bagnaia started to quickly increase his lead. By the time the race was halfway, the factory Ducati rider had opened up a three-second gap and as a result, Binder’s hopes of chasing down his first victory of the year were dashed.

Bagnaia maintained his lead over Binder during the last laps to confidently win by 5.191 seconds, giving the South African his third podium finish of the season.

While the fight for third was much more hotly contested, Alex Marquez was forced to try and fend off the assault of the VR46 Ducati duo of Marco Bezzecchi and Luca Marini. The Gresini rider found himself under extreme pressure as the race entered its final laps after holding the position from the early laps of the race.

With only six laps remaining, Bezzecchi finally managed to get by the Spaniard after successfully implementing a daring attempt. The Italian then sped off to secure his fifth podium finish of the year, leaving Marquez to deal with teammate Marini.

With only a few laps left, Marini went past Marquez to take fourth at Turn 1 despite the fact that Marquez had already reached the end of his tyres’ lifespan. Marquez battled Marini valiantly, but his efforts were in vain.

Marquez finished the race in fifth place, ahead of Maverick Vinales on Aprilia, who had to battle back from his second poor start in as many days after falling to 11th on the opening lap from second. Vinales’ speed wasn’t as strong as expected when he eventually got into clear air, but he still managed to finish sixth.

Jorge Martin overcame a long-lap penalty for his involvement in the first-corner pile-up in the sprint race on Saturday to take seventh place ahead of Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo, who on the very last lap managed to overtake eighth-place finisher Aleix Espargaro.

Enea Bastianini rounded out the top 10 despite finishing more than 20 seconds behind his strong teammate after battling advances from Franco Morbidelli on the sister Yamaha.

Jack Miller had a difficult race that saw him slide all the way to 15th by the finish line as he lost out to GasGas’ Augusto Fernandez on the final lap. Marc Marquez performed superbly to finish as the best-placed Honda in 12th after passing a struggling Johann Zarco.

Miguel Oliveira and Raul Fernandez from the RNF Aprilia team both failed to reach the finish line owing to technical issues, while Joan Mir was the only other rider to finish as a result of an early crash.

By the halfway point of the 2023 season, Bagnaia’s points advantage over Martin is a commanding 63, with Bezzecchi six points further back as the race for second place overall heats up.

2023 AUSTRIAN MOTOGP, RED BULL RING – RACE RESULTS