Bagnaia bosses Austria 

Francesco Bagnaia has flown into the MotoGP World Championship lead after a crushing third straight victory at Austria.

Even considering an early challenge from Jorge Martin, Bagnaia was a beast, blazing ahead and ultimately easing to a comfortable 3s triumph.

Bagnaia and Martin entered the Austrian Grand Prix level on points, but the success gives the #1 a five-point advantage.

Enea Bastinanini joined them on the podium, while Marc Marquez recovered from 14th to fourth.

Australia’s Jack Miller sat in the top four early, but had a costly crash in the chicane.

Martin and Baganaia shot clear of the field with the Pramac rider leading on the inside.

Behind them Marquez and Morbedlli tangled together going into Turn 1 and sent themselves into the run off, but were very lucky not to fall.

However, they dropped out of contention with the #93 14th and the #21 17th.

The big winners were Bastianini and Miller, who flew into the top four.

Although Martin controlled the first lap, he had no answer to Bagnaia’s straight-line speed as the #1 flew past at the start of the second tour.

At the end of the lap Martin then threw a response at the penultimate corner, only for the factory Ducati to perform the switchback.

After this little battle, they settled down with Bastianini clinging onto them as the leading trio pulled 2s on Miller, who had his teammate Brad Binder on his rear wheel.

On Lap 7 they ran side by side from Turns 3-5 and Binder emerged on top as they fittingly completed the contest in front of the KTM grandstand.

Miller now had his work cut out trying to keep Marc Bezzecchi behind, but the VR46 ended up sliding past at Turn 1, which relegated the #43 out of the top five.

By now Miller had a resurgent Marquez for company and the #93 tried to fire around the outside at the chicane.

However, the Spaniard had to back out after his elbow struck the rear wheel of Miller.

Unfortunately Miller ended up gifting the position to Marquez as the Australian crashed at the same right hander a lap later.

Around the halfway mark Bagnaia turned up the intensity and extended his advantage to more than a second over Martin, while a further 3s adrift was Bastinaini.

Marquez was still on the charge however, surging into the top four with ease as he eased past Bezzecchi and Binder.

In the final five laps Martin was able to find a small amount of time, ensuring the gap was less than 2s but it was all part of the Ducati star’s plan.

Bagnaia made sure he had the final say by flying home in the final two laps and almost doubling his advantage to complete a crushing win.

Martin will be looking for a response when MotoGP returns to Aragon on September 1.

Photo by Gold and Goose / LAT Images

2024 Austrian Motorcycle Grand Prix results

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