A race restart, many track limits warnings and the Martinator’s return to glory.
The main event of MotoGP is underway, currently declared a dry race while the clouds continue to roll in.
With Jorge Martin in pole position, it feels like it’s going to be a Ducati win. The Red Bull Ring is known for the Ducati wins, five wins out of the past six races in Austria have gone to the boys in red. But will the Ducati reign continue? It might all go astray if the rain does decide to come in.
Championship leader Fabio Quartararo is in third place, looking to end the reign.
Right off the line, Pecco Bagnaia takes the lead of the race while Joan Mir moves up from the second row to take third place. Through turn 3 Marquez makes his way to fifth behind Fabio Quartararo, but the eyes are on the Ducati’s of Bagnaia and Martin.
Just behind Marquez, the two Yamaha’s cannot keep their cool, tussling each other around the track as they fight for a chance to stop the Ducati’s. Mir takes the opportunity to push Marquez out of the way through turn 6, a move that will frustrate Race Direction.
Just as things were beginning to heat up, on the third lap the red flag comes out due to dangerous track conditions.
Dani Pedrosa highsided in the middle of the track, the bike landing in front of Lorenzo Salvadori’s. The Aprillia ran over the KTM and the gas exploded, causing a major fire and oil spill in the middle of the track. Salvadori was taken away by the medics, and Pedrosa is ok.
This is the third incident in three years at the same corner of the Red Bull Ring. Last season, the incident that involved Franco Morbidelli and Johann Zarco made international history. Just one week later, Maverick Vinales’ bike hit the air wall after his brakes stopped working.
Unlike those two races, since there were not enough laps completed to mark a new grid position, the race will completely start over. There will be 27 laps with the original grid positions, which means that both Pedrosa and Salvadori can be a part of the restart.
Race Restart
As the riders line back up on the grid, it’s a complete blank slate for the riders.
Before the race starts, Vinales stalls the bike on the grid and is forced to start the race from pitlane.
This time around, Jorge Martin and Jack Miller got the better start. Miller is leading the race, Joan Mir once again in third. The top three is already creating a gap between themselves and Fabio Quartararo.
Once again, Marquez and Espargaro had an incident at the first turn, Marquez falling down to sixth while A. Espargaro fell to 16th. It’s clear that both the Repsol Honda’s and KTM’s are struggling. The top Hondas are, in fact, the LCR’s of A. Marquez and Takaaki Nakagami.
Further down the line, the Ducati that originally led the first race is falling down the grid extremely fast. Bagnaia is struggling majorly in this restart, for no apparent reason. It could be that the restart got to his head, or there is something wrong with the bike.
Back at the front, Martin takes the lead from Miller and keeps it strong. It doesn’t take long for Mir to take 2nd from Miller, as well. With 22 laps to go he puts in the fastest lap of the race, looking to settle the score from 2020. Mir was primed to win the race before a red flag took the victory from him.
Another rider that is clearly struggling is Jack Miller, who is overtaken once again- this time by the world championship leader. It doesn’t look like it’ll take long for Zarco to overtake him as well. If both Ducati Lenovo’s are suffering, it could be an electronic issue. This happened in 2019 for the Honda team, where all the Honda’s crashed out at COTA due to electronic issues.
While the Repsol Honda’s and KTM’s had a rough start to the race, they are improving greatly. Binder and Oliveira are up to 9th and 10th respectively while M. Marquez has made his way back up to 11th. Just to add onto the pitlane start, Vinales has a long lap penalty for exceeding track limits. With 14 laps to go Miguel Oliveira suffers from a mechanical issue and has to retire from the race.
We have Jorge Martin in the lead, followed by Mir and Quartararo.
If things stay the way they are, Quartararo will extend his championship lead. Martin is not a championship threat and Mir has not shown consistency all season.
Looking back at the front, Martin and Mir has created a three second gap between themselves and Quartararo. And with 11 laps to go, Martin gets a track limits warning.
Quartararo is currently occupied by Jack Miller, battling it out for third place. In the midst of that battle, Miller loses the front and crashes out of the race. It could mean his championship run is over.
With 8 laps to go, Mir has slowed down behind Martin. He could be waiting for Martin to make a mistake or waiting to make a move in the final stages of the race. Either way, Ducati is depending on Martin to keep the Ducati dream alive.
At this stage of the race, Brad Binder has made some of the best improvements on the grid. He is also the top KTM in 6th place, a far cry from the success of last season.
With 3 laps to go, not much has changed. It seems that Martin is going to take the win as Mir settles for second.
And for the win, rookie Jorge Martin takes his first MotoGP win, followed by Joan Mir and Fabio Quartararo.
With the lack of Ducati power this weekend, are we going to see the Suzuki’s and Yamaha’s flourish? Or will the boys in red return with a vengeance?
Tune in next week to find out!
