Marc Marquez beats brother Alex in Spielberg sprint

Marc Marquez kept up his phenomenal run of success in MotoGP with sprint victory at the Austrian Grand Prix on Saturday.

He headed his brother Alex (Gresini Ducati) home, with Pedro Acosta earning a third-place medal for the factory KTM team at its home track.

Marquez has not been defeated in either a sprint or a grand prix since Marco Bezzecchi won the British Grand Prix in May.

The Marquez family made sure to show up polesitter Marco Bezzecchi at the start of the race by claiming the first two spots at the first corner. It was Alex leading Marc at this stage, but the suspicion was always that the older brother would find a way past when it suited him.

After following Alex for nine laps, Marc duly did so on the 10th, outbraking the light-blue GP24 at Turn 3. From there, he streaked to another comfortable win despite starting the race fourth.

Bezzecchi managed to hold on to third place for the first lap, but he succumbed to Acosta on the second. These two would hold station for the remainder of the race.

Raul Fernandez had a strong ride on the Trackhouse Aprilia and ran as high as fifth early on. But, shortly after Brad Binder (KTM) took that spot away from him on lap eight, the Spaniard was forced to retire with an apparent mechanical issue.

Binder retained fifth until the flag, while behind him Fermin Aldeguer (Gresini Ducati) won an entertaining, race-long battle with Enea Bastianini (Tech 3 KTM).

Fabio Di Giannantonio (VR46 Ducati) and Johann Zarco (LCR Honda) were the final points scorers.

And what of Francesco Bagnaia, who had shared the front row with Bezzecchi and Alex Marquez? His GP25 tried to throw him off in a flurry of wheelspin at the start, dropping him to the lower reaches of the field. He continued to fight issues at the rear of the bike as he plummeted to last place, before finally retiring to the pits after eight laps. 

Austrian Grand Prix – Sprint results