Francesco Bagnaia cruised to a fifth win of the 2023 MotoGP season to further extend to series lead after beating KTM’s Brad Binder at the Red Bull Ring.
The Italian mimicked his race winning performance in Saturday’s sprint race by making a lightning start from pole position before fending off the advances of Binder in the opening few tours, Bagnaia then falling into a rhythm as he looked to preserve his rubber for the latter stages of the encounter.
Binder remained within range as he tried to hang onto his tyres to push for a first win of the year later on, though his hopes were dashed just past mid-distance as Bagnaia began to rapidly extend his advantage – the factory Ducati ace opening up a three-second gap by the time the race reached a thirds-distance.
He continued to pull away across the remaining laps to secure another assured success by 5.191s over Binder, the South African scoring his third rostrum result of the campaign.
The battle for third meanwhile was much more highly debated, with Alex Marquez forced to try and bat off the attack of VR46 Ducati pairing Marco Bezzecchi and Luca Marini, the Gresini man finding himself severely under pressure as the encounter entered its concluding third having held the spot since the early laps.
Bezzecchi looked left and right to find a way past the Spaniard before finally making his way through with only half-a-dozen circulations to run, the Italian sprinting away to secure his fifth podium finish of the year and leaving Marquez to deal with team-mate Marini.
Having by now seen the best of his tyres, Marquez fought tooth-and-nail to hold off the charging Marini – though his defences proved futile as Marini eventually scythed through to secure fourth at Turn 1 with only a few laps remaining.
Marquez thus took the chequered flag fifth ahead of Aprilia’s Maverick Vinales, who was forced to recover from his second bad start in as many days after dropping to 11th from second on the opening lap, the Spaniard eventually able to take sixth – though his speed wasn’t as strong as expected when he finally broke into clean air.
Jorge Martin rallied back from a long-lap penalty for his part in the opening corner pile-up in Saturday’s sprint race to claim seventh ahead of Yamaha’s Fabio Quartararo, who managed to steal eighth from British Grand Prix victor Aleix Espargaro on the very final lap.
Enea Bastianini managed to hold off the sister Yamaha of Franco Morbidelli to complete the top ten, albeit over 20 seconds adrift of his dominant team-mate.
Marc Marquez rode well to cross the line as the best-placed Honda in 12th having moved clear of a struggling Johann Zarco for the spot, while Jack Miller endured a tough race that saw him freefall all the way to 15th by the end as he lost out to GasGas’ Augusto Fernandez on the final circulation.
It was a tough day for the RNF Aprilia squad as both Miguel Oliveira and Raul Fernandez failed to see the finish due to mechanical troubles, while Joan Mir was the only other rider to make it to the end as a result of an early crash for the 2020 premier class world champion.
Bagnaia’s points lead now stands at a formidable 63 over Martin at the mid-point of the 2023 season, with Bezzecchi a further six further behind as the battle for second overall continues to ebb and flow.
Keyword: Bagnaia dominates Austrian MotoGP encounter to further extend series lead