Martín Takes Maiden MotoGP Win In Styria

Calum Gill 14:52 08/08/2021

Rookie Jorge Martín has taken his first ever win in MotoGP, fending off reigning champion Joan Mir to give Pramac Ducati their first win.

Polesitter Martín had lost the lead to factory Ducati rider Francesco Bagnaia at the original start, but had a reprieve when a fiery shunt between KTM returnee Dani Pedrosa and Aprilia’s Lorenzo Savadori at Turn 3 caused a red flag. Both were passed fit, and Pedrosa took the restart, but Savadori was later diagnosed with a broken ankle. With a complete grid reset for the new start, Martín was back on pole. And though he briefly lost out to the other works Ducati of Jack Miller early on, he and Suzuki rider Mir soon broke clear at the front.

Mir kept Martín under huge pressure for the majority of the race, thanks - in part - to Suzuki's ride-height device, which was being used for the first time. But in the closing stages the rookie began to inch away, and when Mir ran wide with six laps left the gap grew to over a second for the first time - with Martín taking victory by 1.6 seconds. This win comes in Martín's sixth start in MotoGP. He had earlier taken a pole and a podium at the Doha Grand Prix, before a violent crash in Portugal ruled him out until the Catalan Grand Prix.

-Full weekend results 

Championship leader Fabio Quartararo extended his lead at the top of the standings with a third place; the factory Yamaha rider keeping out of trouble to comfortably complete the podium. Red Bull KTM's Brad Binder passed both Takaaki Nakagami and Johann Zarco on the final lap to come home a strong fourth in the manufacturer's home race, with Nakagami bringing his LCR Honda home in fifth, and Zarco finishing sixth on the other Pramac bike. Álex Rins took seventh for Suzuki from 13th on the grid.

Marc Márquez had a wild afternoon that included run-ins with Aleix Espargaró (who later pulled off and retired) both before and after the restart, and having run as high as third at the first start he was as low as 13th in the actual race after going wide at Turn 1. He eventually finished eighth. Having led the original start, Bagnaia tumbled down the order on the restart. He finished ninth on the road but then had a track limits penalty that demoted him to 11th behind Álex Márquez and Pedrosa - who took a top 10 on his spare KTM on his first MotoGP start since 2018.

Valentino Rossi scored points in 13th on the weekend he announced his MotoGP retirement. His temporary Petronas SRT Yamaha team-mate Cal Crutchlow was 17th on his MotoGP return standing in for Franco Morbidelli. Maverick Viñales had been a frontrunner at the first start but his Yamaha couldn’t get going for the sighting lap at the restart. He spent the race at the back after joining from the pitlane.

2021 Styrian motorcycle Grand Prix Classification (27 Laps)