MotoGP: Martin defeats Mir to take maiden top class win in restarted Styrian GP

The second half of the 2021 MotoGP World Championship got underway in Styria at the Red Bull Ring. Jorge Martin started from pole position for the second time in just his sixth premier class start. 

The race started dry, although rain was expected. Francesco Bagnaia made the holeshot ahead of Jorge Martin, and led the opening laps before a red flag for an incident involving Dani Pedrosa and Lorenzo Savadori. Both riders were okay, but only Pedrosa was able to make the restart.

In effect, the first race didn’t happen, since the grid positions were those decided by qualifying. Again, the restart was dry, but the threat of rain remained. This time, it was Jorge Martin who made the holeshot from Jack Miller, Joan Mir and the aforementioned Bagnaia. 

Miller hit the front at turn three on the first lap, but two laps later Martin had the lead back. Miller was passed, too, by Joan Mir before lap four was over, and the leading Spanish duo began to stretch away from Miller and Fabio Quartararo behind. 

Mir put the pressure on Martin, the new Suzuki rear ride height device giving him the acceleration he needed to keep pace with the more powerful Ducati. But Martin was able to negate the Desmosedici’s turning deficit, and that allowed him to eventually begin to stretch away from Mir, and, incredibly, the #89 rookie won in only his sixth ever MotoGP start with one of the most mature and controlled rides you are likely to see from any MotoGP rider, let alone a first-year. 

Truly, it was a brilliant display from Martin, and when he was not joined by a factory Ducati rider on the podium the feeling that the Bologna brand is not necessarily fielding the best riders it possibly could be in the factory squad returned. 

Joan Mir held on for second place, his best result of the season, while Fabio Quartararo proved that the step made by both himself and Yamaha between last year and this have been very important indeed. Last year, Quartararo struggled to finish in the top 10, but this year he made the podium in quite convincing fashion, and extended his championship lead as a result. 

Brad Binder was able to make a late charge to fourth place, which is his best result since the Austrian Grand Prix last year when he achieved the same result. The South African put on a strong display to come from 16th on the grid, and looked after his tyres well to overcome Takaaki Nakagami and Johann Zarco at the end.

Fifth place went to Takaaki Nakagami, who was able to get the better of Johann Zarco in the closing stages, which did a further favour to Fabio Quartararo since Zarco remains the #20’s closest challenger in the championship. Behind Zarco was Alex Rins, while Marc Marquez recovered to eighth after dropping to 14th at the first turn on lap two. 

It was a strange race for Francesco Bagnaia. Before the restart, he led under little pressure from behind, while in the restart, he was slow at the start and was running down in the 1’26s. In comparison, in FP4 yesterday he was running in the low 1’24s. A baffling race for the Italian, and one which perhaps ends his championship chances. The victory of Martin, when Bagnaia is still without a win in the top class, surely only serves to further his frustration. He crossed the line in ninth, but was demoted to 11th for a track limits penalty. 

The penalty of Bagnaia promoted Alex Marquez to ninth, for his best dry result of the season, and also it put Dani Pedrosa in the top 10 in his first race since November 2018. It doesn’t really need explaining why that is an impressive result, but it probably does also show that whatever KTM have coming for next season is quite good, especially considering Pedrosa’s relative pace at the end, which was faster than those ahead of him. 

Enea Bastianini was in 12th when he got a long lap penalty for track limits, and he was 12th at the chequered flag, finishing ahead of Valentino Rossi, Luca Marini and Iker Lecuona who took the final point. 

Pol Espargaro’s difficult weekend ended with no points in 16th, a stark contrast to his podium contention of last season; while Cal Crutchlow finished 17th, and Danilo Petrucci was the final classified rider in 19th. 

Maverick Vinales would have finished 20th, but the Spaniard pulled into the pits on the final lap. Prior to that, he had been forced to start from pit lane after stalling on the grid before the warm-up lap, and then he received a long lap penalty for track limits. 

Lorenzo Savadori did not make the restarted race, having fractured his ankle in the crash which caused the red flag. The Italian aims to be back for Silverstone. Aleix Espargaro had contact twice with Marc Marquez in the first corner, once on each start, but it was eventually a crash of his own doing that ended his race. Jack Miller also crashed out while chasing Fabio Quartararo for third, while Miguel Oliveira retired thanks, seemingly, to a problem with his front tyre, which seems harsh considering the pain he was in just to ride in the first palace after his FP1 crash on Friday morning.