Rookie Martin gives Pramac Ducati brilliant first MotoGP win

Rookie Jorge Martin took a superb first MotoGP win for himself, the Pramac team and any non-factory Ducati by defeating reigning champion Joan Mir in the Styrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring.

Polesitter Martin had lost the lead to factory Ducati rider Francesco Bagnaia at the original start, but had a reprieve when a fiery crash between KTM returnee Dani Pedrosa and Aprilia’s Lorenzo Savadori at Turn 3 caused a red flag. Both were passed fit, and Pedrosa took the restart, but Savadori was later diagnosed with a broken ankle.

With a complete grid reset for the new start, Martin was back on pole. And though he briefly lost out to the other works Ducati of Jack Miller early on, he and Suzuki rider Mir soon broke clear at the front.

Using Suzuki’s ride-height device for the first time, Mir kept Martin under huge pressure for the majority of the race.

But in the closing stages the rookie began to inch away, and when Mir ran wide with six laps left the gap grew to over a second for the first time – with Martin taking victory by 1.6s.

The win comes in only his sixth MotoGP start. Martin had taken pole and a podium at his second race in the series in Qatar earlier this year, then had his season heavily disrupted by injuries from a violent Portimao practice crash in April.

Fabio Quartararo extended his championship lead with a comfortable third place for Yamaha.

Quartararo and nearest points rival Johann Zarco had been involved in a tight initial battle with Miller, but the Australian crashed out at the downhill left-handers in the middle of the track at half-distance.

Zarco faded to sixth on the other Pramac Ducati, passed late on by Brad Binder’s KTM and Takaaki Nakagami of LCR Honda.

Binder’s progress from 16th on the grid to fourth rescued KTM’s home race, as Miguel Oliveira – whose weekend had been marred by a huge Friday crash that left him riding injured – retired in the pits with a reported tyre problem and Tech3’s outgoing riders Iker Lecuona and Danilo Petrucci were only 15th and 18th respectively.

Alex Rins took seventh for Suzuki from 13th on the grid.

Marc Marquez had a wild afternoon that included run-ins with Aleix Espargaro (who later pulled off and retired) both before and after the restart, and having run as high as third at the first start he was as low as 13th in the actual race after going wide at Turn 1. He eventually finished eighth.

Having led the original start, Bagnaia tumbled down the order on the restart. He finished ninth on the road but then had a track limits penalty that demoted him to 11th behind Alex Marquez and Pedrosa – who took a top 10 on his spare KTM on his first MotoGP start since 2018.

Valentino Rossi scored points in 13th on the weekend he announced his MotoGP retirement. His temporary Petronas SRT Yamaha team-mate Cal Crutchlow was 17th on his MotoGP return standing in for Franco Morbidelli.

Maverick Vinales had been a frontrunner at the first start but his Yamaha couldn’t get going for the sighting lap at the restart. He spent the race at the back after joining from the pitlane.

Race Results