MotoGP Austrian Grand Prix: Martín wins sprint, retakes championship lead
Jorge Martín won Saturday's MotoGP sprint at Spielberg, reclaiming the championship lead from Marc Márquez. The main race takes place on Sunday at 14:00.
The MotoGP Austrian Grand Prix weekend is taking place at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, marking round 15 of the season. On Saturday, Jorge Martín took pole position on his Aprilia, beating Marc Márquez by just 15 thousandths of a second, and then won the sprint race by roughly one second. Marco Bezzecchi finished third in the sprint.
With that win, Martín reclaimed the overall championship lead, now sitting on 286 points to Márquez's 283. The situation reversed from the previous round: according to sport.de, Márquez won both the sprint and the main race at Misano two weeks earlier, while Martín finished fifth and lost the lead. However, 20 Minutes reports that Márquez's win and subsequent lead came just a week before the Spielberg round — the two sources differ slightly on the exact timing.
Standings and teams
In the overall standings, Bezzecchi sits third, 38 points behind the leader, while Francesco Bagnaia is ninth, already 139 points adrift. It was a difficult Saturday for home manufacturer KTM: Pedro Acosta qualified third but failed to finish the sprint. KTM's best finisher was Brad Binder in ninth, with Enea Bastianini eleventh. Acosta remains fifth overall with 209 points, level with Ai Ogura, while Fabio Di Giannantonio is fourth on 223 points. Among the Japanese manufacturers, Fabio Quartararo is the top Yamaha rider and Luca Marini leads for Honda.
Where to watch live
On Sunday, Spielberg hosts all three championship classes: Moto3 at 11:00, Moto2 at 12:15, and the MotoGP main race at 14:00 (German time). In Germany, all three Sunday races are broadcast free-to-air on DF1, with the MotoGP race also shown on Sky Sport News, while the full weekend airs on Sky Sport Top Event. In France, Saturday's sprint aired on Canal+ Sport 360, with Sunday's Grand Prix shown on Canal+ for subscribers.
As 20 Minutes notes, this is the final European round of the season — after Austria, the championship heads overseas for a long tour including Japan, Indonesia, Australia, Malaysia, Qatar, Portugal and finally Valencia.
