Race report

MotoGP Austrian GP: Marc Marquez beats brother Alex in Spielberg sprint

The factory Ducati rider won as team-mate Bagnaia had a nightmare race

Marc Marquez kept up his phenomenal run of success in MotoGP with sprint victory at the Austrian Grand Prix on Saturday.

He headed his brother Alex (Gresini Ducati) home, with Pedro Acosta earning a third-place medal for the factory KTM team at its home track.

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Marquez has not been defeated in either a sprint or a grand prix since Marco Bezzecchi won the British Grand Prix in May.

The Marquez family made sure to show up polesitter Marco Bezzecchi at the start of the race by claiming the first two spots at the first corner. It was Alex leading Marc at this stage, but the suspicion was always that the older brother would find a way past when it suited him.

Riders take the start of the sprint race

Photo by: Jure Makovec / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images

After following Alex for nine laps, Marc duly did so on the 10th, outbraking the light-blue GP24 at Turn 3. From there, he streaked to another comfortable win despite starting the race fourth.

Bezzecchi managed to hold on to third place for the first lap, but he succumbed to Acosta on the second. These two would hold station for the remainder of the race.

Raul Fernandez had a strong ride on the Trackhouse Aprilia and ran as high as fifth early on. But, shortly after Brad Binder (KTM) took that spot away from him on lap eight, the Spaniard was forced to retire with an apparent mechanical issue.

Binder retained fifth until the flag, while behind him Fermin Aldeguer (Gresini Ducati) won an entertaining, race-long battle with Enea Bastianini (Tech 3 KTM).

Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46 Ducati) and Johann Zarco (LCR Honda) were the final points scorers.

And what of Francesco Bagnaia, who had shared the front row with Bezzecchi and Alex Marquez? His GP25 tried to throw him off in a flurry of wheelspin at the start, dropping him to the lower reaches of the field. He continued to fight issues at the rear of the bike as he plummeted to last place, before finally retiring to the pits after eight laps.

Austrian Grand Prix - Sprint results

1 - 2
Cla	Rider	#	Bike	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Retirement	Points
1	M. Marquez Ducati Team	93	Ducati	14	20'56.071				12
2	A. Marquez Gresini Racing	73	Ducati	14	+1.180 20'57.251	1.180			9
3	P. Acosta Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	37	KTM	14	+3.126 20'59.197	1.946			7
4	M. Bezzecchi Aprilia Racing Team	72	Aprilia	14	+4.032 21'00.103	0.906			6
5	B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	33	KTM	14	+4.782 21'00.853	0.750			5
6	F. Aldeguer Gresini Racing	54	Ducati	14	+6.032 21'02.103	1.250			4
7	E. Bastianini Tech 3	23	KTM	14	+8.294 21'04.365	2.262			3
8	F. Di Giannantonio Team VR46	49	Ducati	14	+10.953 21'07.024	2.659			2
9	J. Zarco Team LCR	5	Honda	14	+11.999 21'08.070	1.046			1
10	J. Martin Aprilia Racing Team	1	Aprilia	14	+12.111 21'08.182	0.112
View full results