Portuguese rider Miguel Oliveira (Aprilia) was hit this Saturday by Italy’s Marco Besecchi (Ducati) in the first corner of the Austrian MotoGP Grand Prix sprint race and was forced to surrender.
The race was won by Italy’s Francesco Bagna (Ducati), the World Championship leader, who beat South Africa’s Brad Binder (KTM) by 2.056 seconds, while Spain’s Jorge Martin (Ducati) finished third with a time of 5.045 seconds.
After leaving pole position, Bagnaia had to drive the KTMs of Brad Binder, who this Saturday extended his contract with the Austrian brand until 2026, and Australian Jack Miller, but he was in the lead from the first to the last lap.
Miguel Oliveira started from eighth on the grid, between Italy’s Marco Bezecchi and France’s Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha).
In turn one, the Frenchman was pinned down by Spaniard Jorge Martin, who brushed against fellow Spaniard Maverick Viñales (Aprilia), who in turn hit Bessecchi, who eventually dropped Oliveira onto the gravel.
Johann Zarco (Ducati) and Enea Bastianini (Ducati) were also involved in the incident, but only the Portuguese and Besecchi retired on the first lap.
This time, however, contrary to what happened in Portimão and Jerez de la Frontera, without any physical consequences for the Portuguese rider.
Anyway, this was the 16th departure of the Portuguese in MotoGP, and half of them were caused by rivals.
With these results, Francesco Bagnaia now has 226 points to Jorge Martin’s 180 in second place, while Miguel Oliveira retains fifth place with 40 points.
Sunday is the main race.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
I’m Dave Martin, and I’m an experienced journalist working in the news industry. As a part of my work, I write for 24 News Reporters, covering mostly sports-related topics. With more than 5 years of experience as a journalist, I have written numerous articles on various topics to provide accurate information to readers.