| Francesco Bagnaia and the Ducati Lenovo Team atop the podium in Austrian sprint race. Fourth place for Enea Bastianini |
- Second place at the chequered flag for Jorge Martín aboard Pramac Racing Team’s Desmosedici GP
Francesco Bagnaia and the Ducati Lenovo Team have come out victorious in the #AustrianGP sprint race, with the reigning world champion crossing the finish line with almost a five-second margin over his closest opponent. Enea Bastianini finished fourth in the 14-lap encounter, despite running wide during the opening lap.
Bagnaia had a good start from the front row as he took the lead heading into turn one. After momentarily slipping into second place, he regained first position as Jorge Martín ran wide at turn two. Pecco managed to fend off the attacks coming from his opponent, with his margin growing exponentially on lap eight as the latter had to serve a long-lap penalty. After Marc Márquez crashed out of second place, Bagnaia focused on managing his lead up to the chequered flag. He is now back on top of the championship standings, albeit tied in points with Martín, while keeping his winning streak at this track alive (since 2022).
Bastianini had an excellent start from row three but made a mistake at turn two, which cost him five positions (he went from fourth to ninth). Enea moved up to seventh already on lap three, while showing great speed and determination aboard his Desmosedici GP machine #23. With three laps left, he overtook Miller and pulled away for third place at the finish line.
The 28-lap, eleventh Sunday race of the 2024 MotoGP season will get underway tomorrow at 14:00 local time (GMT +2).
Francesco Bagnaia (#1 Ducati Lenovo Team) – 1st
“I enjoyed a lot the battle today as, while doing so, I managed to lap in 1:28.7 which was two tenths faster than last year’s pole position time. This is incredible: I knew it was important to lead from the start and Jorge (Martín) tried everything to stay ahead. I tried to overtake him but then he ended up wide. As soon as it happened, I checked the gap and I saw that he was 0.3secs behind, meaning he hadn’t lost one second, so I was sure he would likely end up receiving the long-lap penalty. Then it was all about managing the gap at the front. All in all, it was a fantastic win and I now have plenty of data for tomorrow’s full race. It still won’t be easy, but right now I’m very satisfied.
Enea Bastianini (#23 Ducati Lenovo Team) – 4th
“My approach to the start of the race was an aggressive one, maybe a bit too aggressive. I was starting a little bit behind, so I tried to push hard from the beginning, but I ended up making a mistake at the first chicane. I ended up wide and once I re-joined, I was down in ninth place. From then on, things went pretty well and the performance went beyond my expectations, as my feeling was a lot better than the one I had both yesterday and this morning given my previous lack of confidence with the front-end. Fourth place can be considered as a good result: I got very close to Aleix (Espargaró) in the final stages and without that mistake, a podium finish would have been possible. I’m confident for tomorrow and I believe we won’t change much: surely, it’ll be a much longer race, so let’s see how it goes.”
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