Six Things We Learned From Austrian MotoGP

Francesco Bagnaia dominated both races at the Austrian MotoGP and regained the championship lead from Jorge Martín, who claimed second on both occasions, but there were plenty of other storylines from the weekend.

Third slipping away from Marc Marquez

After sitting pretty in third for most of this season, Marc Marquez has come under intense pressure from Enea Bastianini for third in the championship. The Gresini rider, who hasn’t helped himself by finishing outside the points in three of the last four sprint races, is now 22 points down on the factory Ducati rider.

While Marquez’s form has dipped slightly compared to the early part of the year, Bastianini’s has been trending upwards following his victory at Silverstone and third in Austria.

Desmosedici GP24 stretches its legs again over GP23 model

If you’re a fan of any Ducati rider aboard last year’s Desmosedici bike, seeing them take victory is becoming increasingly less likely. As the Red Bull Ring once again highlighted, the GP24 that Bagnaia, Martín and Bastianini are riding is quite clearly the most complete bike on the grid at present.

Even the brilliance of Marquez is unable to put him in contention for victory weekend after weekend, although it must be said that the likes of Bagnaia and Martín have been at the top of their game for nearly the entire 2024 campaign, thus making it even harder.

However, it’s also clear that the development of the GP24 has led to it being a more complete bike over last year’s title-winning machine, and as a result we’re seeing the same three begin to stretch clear, not only in the championship but in most Grand Prix's.

KTM return to form

Brad Binder’s fourth place at round two of the championship in Portimao was the last time he finished in the top five of a Grand Prix, however, the Austrian company’s home round served as a reminder that KTM still has one of the best bikes on the grid.

Jack Miller crashed out of Sunday’s race but was running inside the top six at the time of his mistake, which followed a very strong fifth place result in the sprint. For Binder, Spielberg saw his return to form continue as he claimed fifth place in the main race, which was also good enough to finish highest of the non-Ducati runners.

Will Martín still receive the same treatment as Bagnaia?

With the title fight so close between Bagnaia and Martín - the pair are separated by five points - Ducati finds itself in such a very good position it could pop the kettle on, put its feet up and enjoy a tasty treat for the remainder of this season. The 2024 world champion is likely to come from one of those two riders, while it occupies the top four positions in the standings with Bastianini third and Marquez fourth.

But there is a lot riding on which one of its riders wins the championship because Bagnaia is the golden boy, we know that, and Martín is heading to Aprilia next season. The worst thing Ducati could have happen is Martín wins the championship and takes the #1 plate across to Ducati’s Italian rival.

Interestingly, Martín seemed to lack the same top speed as Bagnaia in Austria, but before the conspiracy theorists jump onto that train of thought, Ducati is not the type to give a rider fewer tools than the others. In fact, they have stood by Martín for the duration of their time together and that shows no signs of stopping. But what I will say, is when it comes to the final races, mind games could certainly begin to take place.

Franco Morbidelli has the pace but can’t make the most of it

I know what you’re thinking… There are other riders in MotoGP, not just Ducati riders, but such was their dominance, that many of the big talking points surrounded the Italian brand’s riders again in Austria. One of those was Morbidelli who had a lot of pace but was unable to get the result to match.

One of the main reasons for that was his contact with Marc Marquez, which through no fault of his own resulted in him running way wide at turn one and losing all hope of a top five finish. Still, the soon-to-be VR46 rider fought back to claim a strong eighth place finish.

Honda and Yamaha nowhere to be found

Like much of 2024, the Austrian MotoGP proved to be a weekend to forget for both Japanese brands. Worryingly for Yamaha, the recent upgrades have not had the impact that was expected and Fabio Quartararo was a shocking 18th in the race, two spots behind team-mate Alex Rins.

Things weren’t much better for Honda as Takaaki Nakagami was the only rider to secure points in the Grand Prix. Joan Mir finished 40 seconds off the win, which is the type of margin Honda are becoming all-too familiar with for its riders, while Johann Zarco was 21st and Luca Marini failed to finish.

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