Binder gets a shock win with a slippery ring game after a late rain

It was raining clouds for the Red Bull Ring after the race was declared dry, influencing Marc Marquezs ’decision to move late into the soft back in anticipation of the ticket-to-flag scenario.

Styrian GP winner Jorge Martin moved the button to the hole point, while Fabio Quartararo almost rose to second in the 1st round.

Ducatis Francesco Bagnaia found his way to lead before Martin, while Pramac rider and Quartararo touched in turn 6 and fought second when Yamaha rider lost to Johann Zarco, Marc Marquez and Jack Miller.

The battle fought as Bagnaia continued to lead during the first five rounds.

Martin set out to move to Bagnaia in the turn in the 7th sixth round, but ran wide and allowed the factory Ducat colleagues back through both Marquez and the regrouped Quartararo.

In the eighth lap, the rain flags waved, but the track didn’t get wet enough at this point to require a wheel change.

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati team

Photo: Gold and goose / Motorsport pictures

On lap 6 of the same lap, Quartararo found a way inside Bagnaia to take the lead in Yamaha and resisted the Ducat driver trying to take revenge in turn 7 on the left.

Bagnaia then used the power of the Ducat to take over Quartararo for turn 1. The Yamaha rider ran wide and allowed Bagnaia to open the half-second gap as Marquez drove Quartararo second.

After 15 laps, the top three from Bagnaia, Quartararo and Marquez had opened a gap of more than a second for Martin in the back, and both Pramac riders struggled to drive the leaders.

Although Marquez was the only rider in the soft rear tire, Marquez showed no signs of fading his rubber and pressured Quartararo into a mistake in the 20th lap when the Yamaha driver braked too deep into turn 3 in an attempt to keep the Honda behind him.

Marquez then began closing Bagnaia as the rain began to intensify on lap 22/28 Marquez moved in turn 3.

The pace began to drop dramatically as the track got wet, allowing Martin to close back into the controversy along with Joan Mir, Ducatis Jack Miller and KTMs Binder’s Suzuki.

Brad Binder, Red Bull KTM Factory Racing

Photo: Gold and goose / Motorsport pictures

Miller and Alex Rins ’sister in Suzuki were the first to keep wet at the end of the 23rd round, while the leaders rushed in the next two rounds.

Round 25 leader Marquez, Quartararo, Bagnaia, Mir and Martin were boxing on their wet bikes as Binder decided to stay away.

KTM riders were almost crawling around the Red Bull Ring during the final lap, and Binder tried to keep the RC16 in a straight line as he used gas.

But Binder somehow held his bike upright to take the checkered flag for more than 12 seconds for a sensational second-career MotoGP win, even though it struck a three-second penalty after the post-race restriction.

There was complete chaos last season when Aprilias Aleix Espargaro, Tech3 KTM driver Iker Lecuona, Avintias Luca Marini and his brother Valentino Rossi, all of whom remained in the block, came to the podium.

But the riders, who were wet on the wet 25th lap, loaded through the field, and Bagnaia and Martin picked up their way through the slippery runners and got second and third.

Francesco Bagnaia, Ducati team

Photo: Gold and goose / Motorsport pictures

Mir was fourth ahead of Suzuki Marini and made the best fifth of his career with two-year-old Ducatilla ahead of Lecuona, while championship leader Quartararo, who ran off the track after 3 turns, was seventh Petronas SRT Yamaha ahead of Rossi.

The top ten were filled by LCRs Alex Marquez and Aprilias Espargaro, while Marc Marquez crashed second in the final round in the first corner after a wheel change.

Millers ’decision to go wet before the rest with Rins didn’t get rid of. Both 11th and 14th place in the checkered flag, between Danilo Petrucci of Tech3 and Takaaki Nakagam of LCR.

Marc Marquez re-set himself after the collision to seal the last point ahead of his struggling Honda teammate Pol Espargaro in 15th place, while SRT stand-in Cal Crutchlow was the last qualified runner.

Miguel Oliveira was a late crash at the factory’s KTM, Zarco dropped out of the race at Lao 18 and Avintias Enea Bastianini retired early after the Ducat cut.

Despite the drama, Quartararo comes from the Austrian GP with a 47-point difference from Bagnaia and Mir.