Spielberg, Austria – Andrea Iannone gave Ducati its first MotoGP win since 2010 after an epic duel with team-mate Andrea Dovizioso and the factory Yamahas of Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi.
South African hero Brad Binder, meanwhile, finished second to red-hot rookie Joan Mir in the Moto3 race, stretching his lead in the championship to 67 points.
MOTOGP
Iannone started from pole and lead into a dramatic Turn 1, as Honda’s championship leader Marc Marquez went in hot and ran wide, forcing Lorenzo to run wide as well. The reigning title-holder kept his cool, however, and struck back with a spectacular double overtake to get back on terms with the leaders.
By mid-race however, the Ducatis were beginning to move away, with veteran Dovizioso, in his 250th Grand Prix, making most of the running until the closing stages, where the harder rear tyre he had chosen just didn’t have the grip to make a move on “The Maniac”.
Iannone, despite riding through the pain of ribs injured in a motocross crash, judged his final few laps perfectly, using the grip afforded by his softer rear tyre and making it last just long enough to secure his maiden premier-class win – the first for the Ducati Team since Casey Stoner’s swan-song victory at Phillip Island in 2010 and the first 1-2 for the Bologna factory since 2007.
Lorenzo’s determined ride saw him hold off Rossi to claim the final podium spot by less than half a second, while Marquez, very sore after a bad crash in practice that left him with a dislocated shoulder, battled home in fifth, almost 12 seconds adrift – despite his team not have tested in Austria.
The championship leader held off pressure from Suzuki’s Maverick Vinales throughout the race to protect his large title margin and do some damage control. His works Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa was classified seventh, while Ducati privateer Scott Redding and the Tech 3 Yamahas of Bradley Smith and Pol Espargaro completed the top 10.
No less than five riders - Stefan Bradl (Aprilia), Hector Barbera (Ducati), Alvaro Bautista (Aprilia), Yonny Hernandez (Ducati) and Cal Crutchlow (Honda) - were penalised for jumping the start. Four of them dutifully completed their ride-through penalties, which saw them finished right at the back of the field, but Barbera refused, so he was black-flagged. He ignored that as well, and came home seventh on the road, but was disqualified - his number doesn’t even appear on the lap chart after lap 12!
MOTO2
Reigning title-holder Johann Zarco became the most successful French rider in motorcycle Grand Prix history with an emphatic win in a race dominated by Kalex – the first non-Kalex rider home was Speed Up’s Julian Simon in 15th! – with Franco Morbidelli and a charging Alex Rins completing the podium.
Morbidelli got the best start from second on the grid, while team-mate Alex Marquez moved up from fifth to slot into second. However, after contact between Zarco and Marquez with an aggressive move from the reigning champion, the lead group became a five-way battle with Morbidelli leading Marcel Schrotter, Thomas Luthi, Zarco and Marquez.
With nine laps to go, Zarco began his charge, breaking away to win by three seconds, while Morbidelli, taking second back from Luthi on the final lap, put his head down and headed for the line to convert his qualifying position into 20 well-earned points.
Rins had a difficult qualifying and looked well out of podium contention for most of the early laps, before managing to find his way past Marquez and setting off in pursuit of the front group. Closing in on the leading three as the last lap approached, Rins took an incredible podium finish in the last corner, denying Luthi the rostrum in the final few metres of the race.
There were impressive performances from Marcel Shrotter, who posted his best result to date in fifth, and Marquez, who converted his best qualifying yet in Moto2 into a sixth-place finish. It was a bad day at the office, however, for championship hopeful Sam Lowes, as the he crashed out of contention, remounted and then crashed again at the same corner.
MOTO3
Spanish rookie Joan Mir pulled off a stunning victory, outfoxing the top riders to convert an upset pole position into a maiden GP win, ahead of Binder and Enea Bastiani (Honda) who beat Mir’s Leopard Racing team leader Fabio Quartararo to the line by just eight thousandths of a second to grab the final podium spot.
Binder stayed calm under pressure off the line to take the hole shot from second on the grid, but it was Bastianini, with a great start from third, who led at the end of lap one.
The leading five soon broke away, but Mir stayed cool under pressure, and played the last lap like a pro to lead Binder across the line by 0.279s – a big gap in this class of racing.
Less than a quarter of a second later, Bastianini beat Quartararo to the line by 0.008 after a last corner tussle and drag race, with KTM privateer Philipp Oettl only 0.16s behind in fifth – that’s how close it was.
The second group was headed by Mahindra’s Jorge Martin, with Dutch rookie Bo Bendsneyder (KTM), Fabio DiGiannantonio (Honda), Nicolo Bulega (KTM) and Honda privateer Livio Loi rounding out the top 10 – although it is worth noting that Andrea Locatelli on the third Leopard Racing KTM, who finished 13th, was less than six seconds adrift of the leader.
Binder’s nearest title rival, Honda privateer Jorge Navarro, was gridded 17th after a difficult qualifying, but fought his way back up to sixth, putting in some scorching lap times, before crashing out on lap 18.
Romano Fenti, third in the standings, was banned from racing at Red Bull Ring by his own team, Valentino Rossi’s Sky Racing VR46, reportedly for repeated abusive behaviour towards his pit crew, which left Binder to make hay in the Austrian sunshine, stretching his lead to 67 points with eight races still to go.