Three laps from a home win
Pedro Acosta had it won. Two point eight seconds of clear air, a KTM in front of the Red Bull Ring crowd that had waited all weekend for exactly this, and three laps left on the board. Then he lost the front at the Turn 2 chicane. He picked the bike up, rejoined, and retired.
Jorge Martin inherited the lead and took the 14-lap sprint by 1.026s from Marc Marquez this afternoon, with Aprilia team-mate Marco Bezzecchi completing the podium. The KTM garage spent the last two laps watching a home win turn into nothing.
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How Martin got back there
He had started from pole and led into Turn 1, then ran wide on the exit. Marquez took the opening at Turn 2 and squeezed him wide through the middle of the chicane. Martin lost all momentum and dropped to eighth. Acosta went past Marquez at Turn 3 and broke away.
What Martin did over the next ten laps is the part that will worry Ducati. He was back on Marquez by half distance and made the move into Turn 1 with seven laps to go, running the reigning champion over the kerb on the exit. Second place was already enough to retake the championship advantage. The two had arrived in Austria level on points, with Marquez ahead only on countback from five grand prix wins to one.
Ai Ogura took fourth on the Trackhouse Aprilia, Alex Marquez fifth, Francesco Bagnaia sixth from seventh on the grid. Bagnaia was one of only three riders, along with Luca Marini and Alex Rins, to fit a medium rear rather than the soft. Johann Zarco finished seventh for LCR Honda. Franco Morbidelli was the other retirement, and Diogo Moreira and Raul Fernandez both served double long-lap penalties for jumping the start.
KTM’s weekend comes apart
Acosta had been quickest on Friday and qualified third, 0.071s off pole on a front row covered by that same margin. This is his final Austrian round with the factory KTM team, which gave the afternoon an edge before a wheel turned. He had read the first corner perfectly and built the gap in four laps.
Aprilia came to a circuit Ducati have owned for most of the last decade without a Red Bull Ring win of any kind. Martin has taken one piece of that. The grand prix runs on Sunday.
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