Just a day after announcing he was leaving Ducati at the end of this year, Andrea Dovizioso won Ducati’s 50th Grand Prix in convincing style at the Red Bull Ring yesterday. Following him home in second place, and taking his first podium ever, was Suzuki’s Joan Mir. Jack Miller (Ducati) finished third.
Pol Espargaro (KTM) crashed out of the race after building a substantial lead earlier – before the race was re-started due to an horrendous crash. That crash involved Johann Zarco (Ducati) and Franco Morbidelli (Yamaha), who came together at close to 180 mph. Their bikes eventually tumbled through a tight corner that followed with Morbidelli’s Yamaha barely missing Maverick Viñales (Yamaha) and Valentino Rossi (Yamaha). Both Zarco and Morbidelli escaped with less than serious injuries and each of them should line up to race next weekend.
The crash required cleaning of the track, and a re-start with 20 laps remaining. It was clear Espargaro lacked the pace he had prior to the re-start, and he quickly dropped out of podium contention before coming together with fellow KTM pilot Miguel Olivera in a corner – ending the race for both riders, who were uninjured.
The riders return to the Red Bull Ring next weekend for the second half of a double header. Despite an unimpressive ride to 8th place, Fabio Quartararo continues to lead the championship points, with Dovizioso moving into second place.
You can find full race results here. For additional details, visit the official MotoGP site.
Loved the racing and it was great to see passing and dicing. I wonder if MM could use an additional two to three weeks of recovery? I honestly don’t miss him, but do wish him a full recovery.
What a crazy race. So many stories in play! Weird to see Pol unravel after the restart. You’d think these guys would have heir heads on straight enough to handle their emotions better. Binder ticked off the laps and came away with 4th. That’s how it’s done.
Dovi winning 24hrs after announcing he’s leaving Ducati with no place in he paddock lined up for next year? What if he wins the title!?!?
Had Rins not gone down, who knows how it would’ve turned out? Suzuki’s 1st & 2nd?
Best Honda down in 10h? With Maq sidelined they’re looking like the worst bike on the track now. How did they get here?
And that crash.. What do they do about that? Seems like a one in a million situation that bikes could cross the racing line at those speeds but it happened.
Pol didn’t have a medium tyre for the restart, which robbed him of his chance.
I don’t know if they should make an additional tyre available in the event of a red flag, which is in effect an additional session.
You can’t blame Pol/KTM for using their full allocation of the most suitable tyre. There’s no point having that tyre left in the garage 9 weekends out of 10.
That bike flew past Rossi at horrendous pace, missing him by inches. It would have been a quick, painless death.
What a terrible thing to say! You have no idea if it would have been a “quick, painless death,” an agonizing death, a loss of an arm or leg, life in a wheelchair (or worse)… The stupid, thoughtless things people say in these forums never cease to horrify me.
Chill out, man. It’s just an expression. Don’t take everything so literally.
Dang, dude. Who peed in your cornflakes?
Too bad for Pol. Don’t know if he could have won it or not in the end, but he certainly looked strong enough in the early stages for a podium. Rins looked mighty strong as well.
That was a crazy crash. Amazing no one was seriously injured.
What the heck happens to Vinales on Sundays?
Good on Dovi for the win and Mir for his first Podium.
Vinales’ clutch was slipping during the second part of the race (it was audible from the on-board), so the lack of Yamaha drive was exaggerated.
Quattarraro suffered from brake failure and ran straight on a few times, which I find incomprehensible to consider at this level. He still cut through the pack at an almost ‘Marquez-like’ level of ease, which is a positive for him. On the slowest bike too.
Yamaha have speed AND reliability issues this year.
Suzuki are easily the best Japanese MotoGP bike right now, which is quite incredible.
at the salzburgring, the danger was on the outside/lack of run-off. at this place, the danger comes from the inside. FraMo’s bike went right under that airfence. the leaders can get creamed by someone they’ve already passed. now that he’s quit, i’m pulling for (done with) desmo Dovi.
That could have been another installment of Final Destination. Cant help but think Maverick is toast mentally. Hopefully he can wrestle the inner demons and become the rider I think he is. Damn lucky nobody was killed yesterday.
Between that horrific collision in the Moto2 race, and the nightmare scenario that unfolded in the MotoGP race, I’ll be happy if I never see the likes of either of those two incidents again.
The thing that nearly happened to Rossi there is exactly what did happen to me, only it was a car, not a MotoGP missile, and I didn’t have Rossi’s great fortune. Just a flash from the right, a direction from which a flash had no business coming, then BAM.
Yeah, that was no fun to watch. Thank god Maverick and Valentino didn’t get clobbered. Hafizh Syahrin wasn’t so fortunate.
What a wild and crazy race. Congrats to Dovi, Mir and Jack.
How lucky was Rossi?
That was amazing. I don’t jump out of my seat often, but that crash had me bouncing around the living room babbling omg’s for a minute there!
All those projectiles, large and small, flying about the track without taking someone out reminded me of WWII footage of kamikaze planes somehow traveling through all that flack as they head for a warship.
My heart raced for a few minutes the first time I saw it. And I’m not afraid to go fast on a motorcycle at the race track (ok maybe just a little 😲)