MotoGP in Austria

18.08.2024

Sprint

The Ducati Lenovo Team comes out victorious in the sprint race for the Monster Energy British Grand Prix with Enea Bastianini, who scores his maiden win in the Saturday encounter. Francesco Bagnaia’s race came to an early end as he crashed out of fourth place at turn four.

Bastianini made the most of the front-row start as he moved up to second place during the opening lap. The rider #23 stayed on Jorge Martín’s tail until lap six, when in his second attempt he managed to overtake his opponent at the “Stowe” corner and then created a small margin on his fellow Ducati rider. Enea crossed the finish line with a one-second lead as he took his first race win of the season – as well as his maiden sprint race gold medal – while also moving up to third place in the championship standings.

After a good start, which saw him taking the lead entering turn one, Bagnaia then lost three positions and was forced to chase the leading trio. After setting the fastest lap of the race in the fourth lap, the reigning world champion crashed out – uninjured – at turn four. Despite the tumble, Bagnaia still leads the championship standings, albeit with only a one-point margin over Martín.

The 20-lap, tenth Sunday race of the season will get underway tomorrow at 13:00 local time (GMT +1).

Enea Bastianini (#23 Ducati Lenovo Team) – 1st
“I’m happy because the feeling with the bike has been excellent since yesterday, so I knew I could do well today. I didn’t expect the win because Jorge (Martín) had an incredible pace, but some little details allowed us to make the difference. It’s wonderful to be back on the top step of the podium, even though the real race is tomorrow so we mustn’t let the guard down if we want to aim at a repeating the same type of performance. In any case, I’ve been chasing this win for long this year: today came the first win of the season and the first-ever for me in a sprint race, so we can’t complain!”

Francesco Bagnaia (#1 Ducati Lenovo Team) – DNF
“I got a good start to the race but then I couldn’t lift the bike up at turn one, so three riders got past me. I struggled a little bit with the rear-end feeling in the first two laps, then I managed to get up to speed and to bridge the gap with the leading riders. Our potential is really high, but unfortunately, I went in turn four a little too early and the front tucked. The race pace was incredible: I could have qualified tenth with my quickest lap of the race. It’s a shame, because I was feeling comfortable and I think I could have overtaken Aleix (Espargaró) at either turn six or turn 15, and then eventually battle for the win. Unfortunately, I crashed and it was my mistake, but to know that allows me to turn the page and move forward with the same level of confidence in our chances.”

Race

The Ducati Lenovo Team was the absolute protagonist of an incredible race in the Monster Energy British Grand Prix, with Enea Bastianini back atop the podium - after yesterday’s sprint race win – courtesy of an excellent performance in the 20-lap Silverstone race, his maiden win of the season in a Sunday encounter. Francesco Bagnaia crossed the finish line in third place after leading for more than half the race.

Bastianini had a good start from third place on the grid as he was second at turn one. The opening two laps were not too kind to the Ducati rider #23, who made a couple of mistakes that cost him two positions. As the race progressed, Enea managed to find the right feeling with his Desmosedici GP machine as he overtook Aleix Espargaró before chasing the leading duo of Martín and Bagnaia. With seven laps left, Bastianini took advantage of a small mistake by his teammate and moved up to second position, with a one-second gap to the front. Thanks to an unrivalled pace in the closing stages, he managed to get on his rival’s tail and take the lead on the penultimate lap – ultimately crossing the line with a 1.9secs margin. This is Bastianini’s maiden double win, in what was MotoGP’s 75th anniversary.

Bagnaia enjoyed a perfect start and was in the lead as the MotoGP field entered turn one. The reigning world champion held onto first position until nine laps to go and, two laps later, he was also overtaken by his teammate. In the closing stages, he could not keep the strong pace shown in the first half of the encounter due to grip issues. Still, Pecco managed the situation and finished the race in third position.

With the tenth Grand Prix of the season drawing to a close, Bagnaia is currently second in the championship standings, three points away from Martín. Bastianini consolidates third position and narrows the gap to the top down to 49 points. Ducati is sits strongly atop the manufacturers’ standings with 352 points, with the Ducati Lenovo Team leading the team standings (430 points).

The Ducati Lenovo Team will be back in action in a fortnight’s time at Spielberg, Austria, for the eleventh event of the 2024 MotoGP season.

Enea Bastianini (#23 Ducati Lenovo Team) – 1st
“It was a difficult race, as I made a few mistakes in the first two laps and lost some ground. Then, I was able to find the right confidence to get back to the leading group: I bridged the gap first to Aleix (Espargaró), who was not an easy one to pass, and then to Pecco. In the lasf four-five laps, Jorge was pushing really hard and it wasn’t easy to catch him. It’s a fantastic feeling to be back on top of the podium in a Sunday race. I’ve been working a lot on myself: I analysed the first half of the race – the positives and the negatives of it. Generally speaking, my pace has been strong until now, but obviously the qualifying performance surely had a negative impact on many occasions. I tried to work on the mental side of things in order to avoid being caught unprepared in this regard, and I hope I can continue this way.”

Francesco Bagnaia (#1 Ducati Lenovo Team) – 3rd
“I’m satisfied because after yesterday’s crash, it was important to finish the race. It wasn’t easy: I got into the lead and tried to manage the race as best as I could but unfortunately, as I couldn’t push as hard as I wanted with the front-tyre, I had to use the rear tyre more in order to get the bike turning. This led to some struggles at the end of the race. When Martín overtook me, I tried to stay with him but I almost tucked the front at turn seven; this is when I thought that, after yesterday’s crash, it was better to think about making it to the finish line. It’s clear that Enea, when he’s strong already from Friday, is really hard to beat, as he’s known for being very strong in the final part of the race – and he show exactly that today.”

Luigi Dall’Igna (Ducati Corse General Manager)
“All riders did a fantastic race and today was another highly exciting Sunday. The battle on the track was incredible and I’m truly happy for Enea, who managed to get his first Sunday race win of the season. His pace in the final laps was unmatched, which shows that when he also performs well in qualifying, he can battle for the win on every occasion. Pecco did well in bringing home a good result despite the grip issues encountered in the end and managing to stay close to the championship lead in the process. In two weeks’ time there’ll be another opportunity to do well in Austria, on a track where our technical package has always been competitive.”

Race results

Pos.	Nr.	Driver	Team	Bike	Time
1	1	F. Bagnaia			42:11.173
2	89	J. Martin			+3.232
3	23	E. Bastianini			+7.357
4	93	M. Marquez			+13.836
5	33	B. Binder			+18.620
6	72	M. Bezzecchi			+21.206
7	12	M. Viñales			+24.322
8	21	F. Morbidelli			+27.677
9	41	A. Espargaro			+28.829
10	73	A. Marquez			+30.268
11	44	P. Espargaro			+30.526
12	88	M. Oliveira			+30.702
13	31	P. Acosta			+33.736
14	30	T. Nakagami			+36.310
15	37	A. Fernandez			+36.522
16	42	A. Rins			+37.571
17	36	J. Mir			+40.432
18	20	F. Quartararo			+43.788
19	43	J. Miller			+44.134
20	32	L. Savadori			+44.576
21	5	J. Zarco			+54.126
22	6	S. Bradl	HRC Test Team		+54.923
DNF	25	R. Fernandez
DNF	10	L. Marini

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