MotoGP: Bagnaia triumphs in Spielberg

Sprint winner and reigning world champion Francesco Bagnaia clearly won the Austrian Grand Prix in Spielberg ahead of KTM hopeful Brad Binder. Superstar Marc Marquez had to be content with twelfth place

August 20, 2023

From: apa/tu

MotoGP world champion Francesco Bagnaia won the Austrian Grand Prix in Spielberg in a confident manner. The Italian World Championship leader and sprint winner on Saturday also celebrated a start-to-finish victory on his Ducati on Sunday, while KTM challenger Brad Binder came in second, 5,191 seconds short of the longed-for home win for the red-white-red motorcycle manufacturer. The Italian Marco Bezzecchi came third (+7,708/Ducati).

For 26-year-old “Pecco” Bagnaia it was the fifth success in the tenth race of the season, the 26th MotoGP triumph overall and the 50th podium, and for Ducati it was the eighth victory in Styria since the Red Bull Ring returned to the racing calendar in 2016. The second KTM rider Jack Miller didn't get rolling at all on Sunday and fell many positions back to 16th place after a good start. Honda superstar Marc Marquez crossed the finish line in a main race for the first time this season, but the Spaniard had to settle for twelfth place.

More than 170.00 fans were on the track for Sunday's race. © APA/afp / JURE MAKOVEC

Bagnaia extended his 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 clearly ahead of his Ducati colleagues Jorge Martin (189), who came seventh, and Bezzecchi (183). As fourth in the World Cup, Binder now has 160 points.

KTM still at the top

In the smaller classes, KTM celebrated a dramatic double victory in Moto3. The Turk Deniz Öncü won after a photo finish by five thousandths of a second ahead of World Championship leader Daniel Holgado from Spain. The Japanese Ayumu Sasaki (Husqvarna) was still in the lead before the last corner and had to settle for third place. In Moto2, the Spaniard Pedro Acosta, who already has a MotoGP contract with KTM for next season, narrowly missed out on another home win when he finished second when the Italian Celestino Vietti won.