Francesco Bagnaia cruised to a comfortable victory in the Austrian Grand Prix sprint race ahead of Brad Binder, while Marco Bezzecchi was taken out in a first corner pile-up.
The factory Ducati pilot launched off the line beautifully to maintain the leadership from pole position, Bagnaia fending off the advances of an aggressive Binder on the opening couple of tours to firmly establish himself out in front.
From then on the Italian crafted a comfortable lead as he pulled clear of the chasing KTM, Bagnaia enjoying a lead of around two seconds with two-thirds of the encounter completed before later backing off in the closing few tours to take the chequered flag 1.9 seconds clear of the South African for his fourth sprint success of the year.
Jorge Martin ended up a controversial third having seemingly been the catalyst for a large pile-up at Turn 1 on the opening lap that eliminated several riders on the spot – including title contender Bezzecchi as well as Miguel Oliveira and Johann Zarco, while Maverick Vinales and Fabio Quartararo were heavily held up in the carnage and dropped to the back of the field.
Martin attempted to dive through on the inside of the narrow Turn 1 and clipped Quartararo, which then pushed him on into the side of Bezzecchi and in turn took out the other riders – Martin escaping unscathed in fifth.
Having moved clear of KTM’s Jack Miller after he ran wide at Turn 4 approaching mid-distance, Martin then turned his attentions towards relieving Luca Marini of third- though a move at Turn 2 also ended in disaster as he ran wide and swept out Marini’s front wheel – leaving the VR46 rider to retire in the gravel.
Martin then had a quiet end of the race to claim third, though he remains under investigation for the Turn 1 incident – the Pramac Ducati rider escaping punishment for his clash with Marini.
Miller completed the top five ahead of Pol Espargaro, the GasGas rider enjoying a strong outing to score his first points of the year in only his second event back from the severe injuries he suffered in practice for the season opening Portuguese Grand Prix.
Aleix Espargaro closely followed his brother home in seventh on his Aprilia, while team-mate Maverick Vinales blazed back through the field to eighth having dropped all the way to 18th following the opening lap calamity.
Yamaha’s Franco Morbidelli ended up getting the better of Honda’s Marc Marquez to claim the final point for ninth, the latter completing the top ten.
Fabio Quartararo came home 15th having also collected a long-lap penalty for taking out Lorenzo Savadori at Turn 4 as he attempted to recover the time lost as a result of being caught up in the opening lap shunt, the Frenchman heading home LCR’s Iker Lecuona and the other GasGas of Raul Fernandez, who picked up a penalty for track limits.
Takaaki Nakagami also failed to see the chequered flag after the LCR ace crashed at Turn 2 only a few laps into the contest.
Bagnaia’s series lead thus increases to 47 over Martin, with a gap of 59 back to the unlucky Bezzecchi.
Keyword: Bagnaia eases to Austria sprint win, Bezzecchi eliminated in opening turn pile-up