Francesco Bagnaia was absolutely unbeatable this weekend. The MotoGP World Champion won the Austrian Grand Prix in spectacular fashion on Sunday. The Italian championship leader managed to win the sprint on Saturday. Now he followed that up on Sunday in his Ducati and celebrated an undeniable start-to-finish victory. KTM challenger Brad Binder was second, 5.191 seconds short of a home win for the red-white-red motorcycle manufacturer. Third was Italian Marco Bezecchi (+7.708/Ducati).
For “Peco” Bagnaia (26) it was his fifth win in the tenth race of the season, 26th MotoGP win and 50th podium, the eighth win in Styria for Ducati since the Red Bull Ring returned to the racing calendar year 2016. The other KTM rider, Jack Miller, didn’t run at all on Sunday and dropped several places to finish 16th after a good start. Honda superstar Marc Marquez finished in the main race for the first time this season, but the Spaniard had to settle for twelfth place.
Bagnaia extended his world championship lead to 62 points at the halfway point of the season. With 251 points, the defending champion and last year’s Spielberg winner is well ahead of his Ducati teammates George Martin (189), who finished seventh, and Bezecchi (183). Binder now has 160 points, tied for fourth in the World Cup.
In the smaller classes, KTM celebrated a dramatic one-two in Moto3. Deniz Öncü of Turkey won after a photo finish by five thousandths of a second over world championship leader Daniel Holgado of Spain. Japanese Ayumu Sasaki (Husqvarna) was in the lead even before the last corner and had to settle for third place. In Moto2, Spaniard Pedro Acosta, who already has a MotoGP contract with KTM for next season, finished second, missing out on another home victory as Italian Celestino Vietti won.
