Ducati’s Francesco Bagnaia delivered an astonishing display at the Red Bull Ring on Sunday to claim a MotoGP double in Austria.
The championship leader assumed the lead on Lap 2 of 28 over his title rival Jorge Martin, with the Pramac rider having to watch the Italian punch in a series of consistently fast laps to romp away to victory.
Bagnaia’s stunning performance was complimented by Enea Bastianini rounding out the podium to make it a factory Ducati one-three result.
After Saturday’s Sprint, Bagnaia looked in ominous form and looked well poised to better pole-sitter Martin once again.
The two title rivals, tied on points going into the Grand Prix, were a cut above the rest of the field on Saturday, with Gresini’s Marc Marquez, who fell off in pursuit of Bagnaia in the Sprint, starting from third aboard his year-old Ducati.
Bagnaia’s team-mate Bastianini couldn’t be counted out either, finishing fourth in the Sprint after a late surge and his exceptional tyre management skills stood him in good stead to perform well in the GP.
28 laps commenced with another grand start from Martin and Bagnaia, who led from Bastianini and KTM’s Jack Miller.
Marquez meanwhile had a poorer launch and got caught in a scuffle with Pramac’s Franco Morbidelli at Turn 1, with both riders running deep and falling to 13th and 17th respectively.
Replays showed Marquez’s Gresini encountering issues, with the rear ride height device failing to engage.
Miller’s KTM team-mate also enjoyed a good start, passing Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro to take fifth on Lap 1.
Bagania was quick to get to the front, passing Martin into Turn 1 to start the second lap of the GP, wasting no time to stake his victory claim.
Martin responded at Turn 9 but Bagnaia reclaimed the lead at the very next corner, powering down the start/finish straight with a corner exit speed that the Pramac rider seemingly couldn’t match.
Watching the fight between the pair was Bastianini, running a not-too-distant third and well poised to compete later on when his tyre management skills would more than likely come into play.
By the start of Lap 5, the top three, all aboard the GP24-spec Ducati, enjoyed a 1.5s lead over the rest of the field with Miller and Binder the best of the rest for KTM.
That gap between the leading trio and the rest of the pack grew to two seconds a lap later, with Bagnaia, Martin and Bastianini clearly the class of the field.
In the mid-pack, VR46’s Marco Bezzecchi was making moves, passing Espargaro for sixth.
Marquez meanwhile, had fought his way past brother Alex to take ninth, putting him behind the two Aprilia’s of Espargaro and Maverick Vinales.
Vinales tried to switch the Aprilia order at Turn 3 on Lap 7 but got it completely wrong and had to run deep, surrendering eighth to Marquez.
The KTM’s swapped positions too with Binder passing Miller for fourth at Turn 4, with Bezzecchi passing the Australian into Turn 9.
But Miller responded at Turn 10, only for Bezzecchi to make the pass stick into Turn 1 to solidify fifth at the start of Lap 8.
Marquez was on a charge, passing Espargaro and giving himself ample opportunity to challenge the KTMs and Bezzecchi ahead.
In the separate race at the front, Bagnaia and Martin started to open up a slight gap over Bastianini to the tune of 1.3s by Lap 9.
Marquez arguably had the pace to match the top three, but his Lap 1 drama meant he was stuck fighting for sixth with Miller and an overzealous move into the Turn 2 chicane on Lap 10 almost proved costly.
Instead, it cost the Spaniard three-tenths of a second forcing him to claw the ground back.
But Miller handed Marquez the position a lap later by dropping the front of his KTM heading into the chicane – putting a sorry end to the Australian’s most promising weekend of the season to date.
With 17 laps to go, Bagnaia looked to be in control at the front, but Martin was keeping him honest with Bastianini a further two seconds down the road.
The reigning champion wasn’t keen on towing Martin along however and on Lap 13 pulled out an extra pocket of pace to take the lead to one second as he started Lap 14.
By Lap 15, that lead grew to 1.3s with Bagnaia aiming to break Martin’s spirit.
If Bastianini was conserving his tyre, he’d need to turn up the pace sooner rather than later as he’d fallen to 2.5s behind Martin at the halfway point of the race.
Marquez’s progress, which had halted for some laps behind Bezzecchi, got going again with a move to pass the VR46 rider for fifth at the chicane on Lap 17.
10 laps to go, Bastianini’s tyre management promise had faded to a 3.8s deficit to Martin in second, who was 1.7s back from race leader Bagnaia.
The reigning champion was in control and barring a shock, looked odds on to secure a Red Bull Ring double.
The top three and the order it lay in, also looked set to stick through to the chequered flag as Bagnaia, Martin and Bastianini all had significant breathing room with 8 laps to go.
Marquez meanwhile, had risen to fourth but was seven seconds back from the podium and his challenge looked to have reached its high water mark.
The last five laps were run as a high-speed spaced-out procession with Bagnaia cruising to victory to put himself five points clear of second-place Martin in the Riders’ standings.
Bastianini completed the podium, confirming the GP24’s margin over the rest of the field.
Had it not been for his ride height device failing at lights out, Marquez could have challenged the top three aboard his year-old Ducati, but alas, he was resigned to fourth with Binder rounding out the top five.
Bezzecchi crossed the line in sixth to lead Aprilia’s Vinales and Pramac’s Morbidelli, with Espargaro and Gresini’s Alex Marquez rounding out the top-10.
KTM’s wildcard test rider Pol Espargaro came home in 11th, ahead of Trackhouse Racing’s Miguel Oliveira and Tech3’s Pedro Acosta, who had a tricky weekend in Austria.
Completing the points-paying order was LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami and Acosta’s Tech3 team-mate Augusto Fernandez, with Yamaha’s Alex Rins just missing out in 16th.
Repsol Honda’s Joan Mir was pointless in 17th ahead of Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo.
KTM’s Miller recovered from his early crash to finish 19th, one place ahead of Aprilia wildcard and Test Rider Lorenzo Savadori.
That left LCR Honda’s Johann Zarco and Honda Test Rider and wildcard Stefan Bradl to complete the final classification with Trackhouse’s Raul Fernandez and Repsol Honda’s Luca Marini failing to finish.
