Race report

MotoGP Austrian GP: Martin claims sprint win after Acosta crashes out

A major unforced error denies Acosta victory on KTM's home turf as Martin completes a spectacular comeback to retake the points lead

Jorge Martin claimed an unlikely victory in the Austrian Grand Prix sprint after Pedro Acosta crashed out of the lead with three laps to run.

Acosta appeared on course to win in front of KTM’s home crowd on Saturday, having capitalised on an early battle between Martin and Marc Marquez to seize the lead on the opening lap.

The 22-year-old was leading by almost three seconds when he dumped his KTM at Turn 2 on lap 12 of 14, handing Martin - who finished the opening lap in eighth - victory at the Red Bull Ring.

At the start of the race, Martin pulled away cleanly from pole position but ran too deep into Turn 1, leaving him under serious pressure from Marquez at the following straight.

The two championship rivals came to blows at Turn 2, with Marquez surging to the lead as Martin ran out of road and plummeted down the order.

Acosta was also a big gainer from the incident, recovering to second place after dropping behind Marco Bezzecchi to fourth at the start.

Going into Turn 3, Marquez missed his braking point by a fraction, with Acosta sending his KTM up the inside to hit the front.

Once in the lead, Acosta quickly extended his advantage, pulling out a lead of a second in just three laps.

Meanwhile, Martin was on the move, picking off his rivals one after the other. On lap 7, he passed his team-mate Bezzecchi to move into podium position, before forcing Marquez wide at the start of the following tour to move back up to second.

At this stage, Acosta had a comfortable advantage of 2.5s, with Martin unable to make any headways into his lead.

But with the victory seemingly on the horizon, Acosta made a rare error heading into Turn 2 and hit the deck, handing Martin a surprise victory.

The 2024 champion took the chequered flag a full second clear of Marquez, retaking the championship lead by three points.

Bezzecchi completed the podium on the other factory Aprilia after closing in on Marquez in the latter stages of the race.

Returning to action this weekend after a two-race layoff, Ai Ogura crossed the finish line in fourth on the Trackhouse Aprilia, beating the Gresini Ducati of Alex Marquez.

Francesco Bagnaia scored his first points since the summer break with a solid ride to sixth on the factory Ducati, with Johann Zarco (LCR), Fermin Aldeguer (Gresini) and Fabio di Giannantonio completing the points scorers.

No Yamaha rider finished inside the top 10, with Fabio Quartararo only managing 12th on the factory M1.

Just two riders failed to make it to the finish, with VR46’s Franco Morbidelli joining Acosta in the list of retirees. The latter was able to remount his KTM following his crash, but had to pull his hobbled bike into the pits shortly afterwards.

SPRINT

All Stats

Cla	Rider	#	Bike	Laps	Time	Interval	Retirement	Points
1	J. Martin Aprilia Racing Team	89	Aprilia	14	20'57.387			12
2	M. Marquez Ducati Team	93	Ducati	14	+1.026 20'58.413	1.026		9
3	M. Bezzecchi Aprilia Racing Team	72	Aprilia	14	+1.675 20'59.062	0.649		7
4	A. Ogura Trackhouse Racing Team	79	Aprilia	14	+3.495 21'00.882	1.820		6
5	A. Marquez Gresini Racing	73	Ducati	14	+4.447 21'01.834	0.952		5
6	F. Bagnaia Ducati Team	63	Ducati	14	+5.142 21'02.529	0.695		4
7	J. Zarco Team LCR	5	Honda	14	+5.895 21'03.282	0.753		3
8	F. Aldeguer Gresini Racing	54	Ducati	14	+6.810 21'04.197	0.915		2
9	B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	33	KTM	14	+7.233 21'04.620	0.423		1
10	F. Di Giannantonio Team VR46	49	Ducati	14	+9.228 21'06.615	1.995
11	E. Bastianini Tech 3	23	KTM	14	+11.580 21'08.967	2.352
12	F. Quartararo Yamaha Factory Racing	20	Yamaha	14	+13.050 21'10.437	1.470
13	L. Marini Honda HRC	10	Honda	14	+15.076 21'12.463	2.026
14	P. Espargaro Tech 3	44	KTM	14	+18.373 21'15.760	3.297
15	T. Nakagami Honda HRC	30	Honda	14	+19.201 21'16.588	0.828
16	D. Moreira Team LCR	11	Honda	14	+20.503 21'17.890	1.302
17	T. Razgatlioglu Pramac Racing	7	Yamaha	14	+20.964 21'18.351	0.461
18	A. Rins Yamaha Factory Racing	42	Yamaha	14	+21.054 21'18.441	0.090
19	R. Fernández Trackhouse Racing Team	25	Aprilia	14	+22.646 21'20.033	1.592
20	J. Miller Pramac Racing	43	Yamaha	14	+26.053 21'23.440	3.407
dnf	P. Acosta Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	37	KTM	13	+1 Lap 19'51.518	1 Lap	Retirement
dnf	F. Morbidelli Team VR46	21	Ducati	10	+4 Laps 15'24.941	3 Laps	Accident
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