Pole position and a dominant run to victory in both the sprint and the main race. That describes Francesco Bagnaia’s perfect weekend at the 2023 MotoGP Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring. KTM also had a great home race as Brad Binder finished second in both races, while Marco Bezzecchi finished third for VR46 Racing.
How the race transpired
Like was the case in the sprint, Bagnaia rocketed off the line, avoiding any Lap 1 chaos, with Binder close behind him and the latter’s teammate Jack Miller in third place. However, unlike the sprint, Binder was shadowing Bagnaia for much longer, up until the halfway point of the race where Binder’s race pace started fading away compared to Bagnaia.
While the top two riders were in a class of their own, the real battle was for third position, After Jack Miller dropped like a stone over the course of the race, it was a close contest between Gresini Racing’s Alex Marquez and the VR46 Racing duo of Marco Bezzecchi and Luca Marini. Some close calls later, the VR46 duo triumphed in the end, finishing third and fourth, a great recovery after the double-DNF disaster in the sprint on Saturday.
In the title race, Bagnaia’s monstrous consistency sees him pull a good 62 points clear of Jorge Martin and looks in a commanding position to retain his crown. After a week’s break, MotoGP will return to racing action in Barcelona, Spain for the Catalan Grand Prix, scheduled to run between September 01 and 03, 2023.
