Motogp: 2023 MotoGP: Pecco Bagnaia cruises to another Sprint win as Martin bags controversial podium place

It was just another winning Saturday for Francesco ‘Pecco’ Bagnaia at the Red Bull Ring in Austria. The Italian rider had put his bike at the front of the grid in Qualifying and then got a great start. Finished almost two seconds behind him was Brad Binder of the KTM Factory Racing Team. However, the spotlight was on Jorge Martin for this Sprint and not exactly for the right reasons. He managed to grab the final podium place but not before being involved in two incidents.

Coming all the way back from P12, Martin made a lunge into the first turn and tagged Fabio Quartararo. This caused a domino effect with Fabio then nudging Vinales and then that caused a big collision. The melee left Marco Bezzechi and Miguel Oliviera out of action immediately. Johann Zarco, Fabio Quartararo and Maverick Vinales were caught in the chaos too but managed to carry on, even if towards the back of the pack. Zarco retired to the pits on the very last lap and did not finish the race. No penalties were handed out for this incident during the Sprint, however, it will be reviewed by the stewards afterwards.
Jorge Marting was living up to his nickname, the Martinator but not in the way that he would have liked. After the first lap chaos, Martin also had contact with Luca Marini on Lap 7 at Turn 2 as he was trying to overtake the remaining Mooney VR46 rider. Unfortunately, the contact made Marini lose balance and he crashed out. The stewards did not deem this to be an incident worthy of a penalty but Valentino Rossi might not be too happy with Martin for taking out both of his riders in the same Sprint. Having pushed aggressively throughout the session, the Pramac rider did manage to secure the final podium place.
Despite a horrible start and being caught in the opening incident, Vinales did manage an impressive recovery and finished the Sprint in P8. He was just behind fellow Aprilia rider Aleix Espargaro. Aleix himself was mostly in a battle with his brother Pol, who has come back strong after a massive accident at the start of the season. Pol managed to finish ahead of his elder brother which is rather impressive since it looked like his racing career was practically over not too long ago.
While Brad Binder did well to not make any mistakes and kept hold of second place, his teammate, Jack Miller was not so lucky. The Australian rider did not get the rocket start that KTMs have come to be known for and fell back a few places to finish in fifth place.
Honda had a relatively better day as Takkaki Nakagami was their only rider to not finish the race. The Japanese rider crashed at Turn 4 on Lap 6 of the Sprint. While Marc Marquez and Joan Mir did cross the finish line, they did not score any points. Yamaha did score a single point thanks to Franco Morbidelli finishing P9 while Fabio only finished P15 after a long lap penalty.