Moto GP – Austria GP – Race

13th race of the calendar takes the calendar back to Austria, for its 2022 GP. A warm, cloudy afternoon saw the riders line on the grid for the start of the race.

First laps saw a dominant performance from the Ducati bikes as expected, with Bagnaia taking the lead from Bastianini on the first lap, meanwhile Jack Miller and Jorge Martin joined the leading group and created a gap of 1 second, with the chasing group of Viñales, Quartararo and Aleix Espargaro. Joan Mir was the first incident of the race with a big air moment at the hard brake of turn 5.

As the race was developing, the chasing group was able to connect with the Ducati group up front, meaning that there was a strong possibility on making moves on track, with constant passes on some riders, Quartararo recovered from its weak start and was chasing Bastianini, just before the Gresini bike suffered a mechanical problem and forced the Italian rider to retire, Remy Gardner also retired, but beacause of an incident.

It quicky develop on a official Ducati battle for the lead, between Francesco Bagnaia and Jack Miller, as both riders showed the red lap times on a constant pace. Meanwhile Aleix Espargaro was attempting to close on his title rival Fabio Quartararo, as the points gained on each race became more critical at this stage of the championship.

As the final laps were close by, the race quicky develop on which rider could had a better pace for the last part of it, as Luca Marini and Fabio Quartararo were the ones that had a significant pace compared to the other riders and started to climb several positions on the standings, with the Frenchman taking both Jorge Martin and Jack Miller on superb passes.

The final battle for podium was between Jack Miller and Jorge Martin, with both rider pushing to the limit, as the Spaniard attempted a move on turn 1 of the final lap, he loses control of the bike and find himself on the ground, losing the podium battle and a significant amount of points. Francesco Bagnaia didn’t have much trouble to clinch another race win, with Quartararo gaining a strong 2nd place and Jack Miller returning to a podium finish.

Race Results:

1. Francesco Bagnaia /// 2. Fabio Quartararo /// 3. Jack Miller
4. Luca Marini /// 5. Johann Zarco /// 6. Aleix Espargaro
7. Brad Binder /// 8. Alex Rins /// 9. Marco Bezzecchi
10. Jorge Martin /// 11. Fabio Di Giannantonio /// 12. Miguel Oliveira
13. Maverick Viñales /// 14. Alex Marquez /// 15. Andrea Dovizioso
16. Pol Espargaro /// 17. Stefan Brald ///18. Raul Fernandez
19. Lorenzo Savadori /// 20. Remy Gardner

DNF: Franco Morbidelli, Darryn Binder, Takaaki Nakagami, Enea Bastianini, Joan Mir

A dominant display of ride and power for the Ducati team and Bagnaia, who’s championship dreams are not over yet. Meanwhile Quartararo keeps a strong gap at the riders championship, as Aleix Espargaro finished 6th. Still lot can happend with some races left at the calendar.