After a long summer break, MotoGP was certainly back with a bang as Jorge Martin, the rookie, claimed his first-ever MotoGP victory after just six races in the elite division of the sport. Joan Mir picked up 2nd place and fastest lap as he crossed the line and it was Championship leader, Fabio Quartararo who sealed the final podium position to extend his championship lead. Let’s have a look at the men who shined and the men who left us wanting more at the Styrian Grand Prix.
MEN WHO SHINED
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Pramac Ducati’s Jorge Martin who is also known as The Martinator took his maiden MotoGP victory after taking pole position in qualifying and also resisted immense pressure from the reigning World Champion Joan Mir all through the race. Mir, who had a chance to pass him for the lead, made a slight error coming out of the final corner which gave Martin a moment to take a breath as he crossed the chequered flag. Fabio Quartararo crossed the line in P3 to seal the final podium spot and extend his championship lead. After starting the race at the back end of the grid, KTM’s Brad Binder had a perfect Sunday as he crossed the line in P4 with last lap maneuvers on Nakagami and Zarco who crossed the line P5 and P6 respectively. It was a good day for Alex Rins as well who started the race in 13th and fought his way through the midfield to finish the race in 7th. The Marquez brothers came in P8 and P9 and Dani Pedrosa who caused the session to be red-flagged finished P10 on his spare bike in his incredible return to elite racing, to close out the top 10 of the 2021 Styrian Grand Prix.
MEN WHO LEFT US WANTING MORE
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We saw the session being red-flagged after a fiery incident between KTM’s Dani Pedrosa and Aprilia’s Lorenzo Savadori who struck the unsighted KTM of Pedrosa at Turn 3 after the wildcard had fallen off his bike. This incident may well have caused Lorenzo a shoulder injury as the rider was taken out on a stretcher as his race came to an end. The battle for the third position between Quartararo and Jack Miller was quite intense as both riders weren’t backing off, but Miller made life easy for the championship leader as he crashed his Ducati at Turn 7 and took a fatal blow to his Championship hopes as he now sits 72 points behind Quartararo. Ducati’s Bagnaia continued his poor form as he was given a 3 second time penalty for failing to comply with the long lap penalty which dropped him down to P11. Lastly, it was another poor race for Maverick Vinales and Yamaha as the rider was forced to start from the pitlane when he stalled his bike on the grid for the restart.
STANDINGS:
Riders
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After securing his seventh podium of the season, it seems like no one can catch the Championship leader Fabio Quartararo who holds a strong 40 point lead over fellow countryman Johann Zarco who is on 132 points. A second-placed finish took Joan Mir (121 points) ahead of Francesco Bagnaia, on 114 points. A DNF for Jack Miller saw him stuck on 100 points and the championship looks over for him as he finds himself 72 points behind the current leader. With both riders having a poor race, we have Maverick Vinales and Miguel Oliviera on 95 and 85 points respectively who are 6th and 7th on the leaderboard. After a brilliant Styrian GP, Brad Binder moved to 8th spot just twelve points ahead of Aleix Espargaro who is 9th with 61 points. To seal the top ten, it’s Marc Marquez who has 58 points on board after competing in only eight races.
Constructors
The battle between Yamaha and Ducati keeps getting hotter with every passing race. After the Styrian GP, Yamaha’s 17 point lead is closed down to just 8 points by Ducati who has 192 points as of now. Good races for KTM (127) and Suzuki (125) saw both the constructors creating some space between the bottom two. Honda bagged decent points this weekend and stretched their 24 point lead over Aprilia to 35 points.
With the championship battle becoming one-sided, let’s see if there’s anyone who can come close to Quartararo when MotoGP heads back to the same track next weekend for the Austrian Grand Prix.
[Image Credit: MotoGP]
Shashank Iyer