With a constant uncertainly on track conditions, the first race of this year’s doubleheader at the Red Bull Ring saw intense battles, a scary first lap incident and a new first time winner on today’s Styrian GP

First lap was an intense battle battleground as some riders even had close calls, such as Marquez with Aleix Espargaro on a agressive move on the first turn, meanwhile Bagnaia and Martin were head to head on the frist straigt.

Unfortunately, Dani Pedrosa lost the bike on the heavy brake of turn 2, with Lorenzo Savadori hitting the bike, causing a fuel leak and a fire on track. Both riders got away from the incident with no serious injury; But the race had to be red flagged and marshals had to clean up the mess for a couple of minutes.

After almost 40 minutes, the riders were back on track, except for Maverick Viñales, as his bike was stuck on the pitlane and couldn’t get on track in time, having to start the race from the pitlane. Lights were of once again, with Jorge Martin, Jack Miller and Joan Mir up in front. With another close call of Marquez and Aleix Espargaro, only this time there was some involvement from Fabio Quartararo.

At the first laps, 3 of the 4 Ducati bikes were showing a competitive pace, only Bagnaia’s bike was struggling on track with a last secon tyre configuration. Meanwhile Martin was heading strong to the lead and only being followed by Joan Mir. As both riders started to get separated from Quartararo, Miller and Zarco.

As the laps passed by, several riders were being penalized because of exceding track limits, like Viñales, Bastianini or Lecuona among others. Even Martin was notified on a last warning as he tried to create a gap on the Suzuki bike of Mir. As it looked like the new bike’s configuration can now keep up with the Ducati top speed.

Quartararo had his own issues too, as the Frenchman was constantly chased by Jack Miller for a considerable number of laps, until the Aussie made a mistake and went to the gravel on turn 5, with 10 laps to go.

Eventually, the Spaniard on the Pramac started to push hard and create a small gap with the the Spaniard on the Suzuki. As Martin showed some masterclass management and composture on the last laps on the race; Taking his maiden victory on his 6th career start. After having a fractured leg some months ago. Mir keeps the cosistent results with a strong 2nd place and Quartararo extends the lead on the championship by closing the podium spot.

Race Results:

1. Jorge Martin /// 2. Joan Mir /// 3. Fabio Quartararo
4. Brad Binder /// 5. Takaaki Nakagami /// 6. Johan Zarco
7. Alex Rins /// 8. Marc Marquez /// 9. Alex Marquez
10. Dani Pedrosa /// 11. Francesco Bagnaia /// 12. Enea Bastianini
13. Valentino Rossi /// 14. Luca Marini /// 15. Iker Lecuona
16. Pol Espargaro /// 17. Cal Crutchlow ///18. Danilo Petrucci
19. Maverick Viñales

DNF: Jack Miller, Miguel Oliveira, Lorenzo Savadori

Ducati keeps having dominant results at the Red Bull Ring with 6 wins on the last 7 races. As both Ducati and Suzuki bikes show a considerable improvement compared to the Yamaha bike, which looked unstoppable on the first half of the calendar. We’ll see if they can still keep up the competition, in the second part of the doubleheader, on the next week.