MotoGP

Sunday’s Austrian GP was run under largely dry conditions, but the rain intensified with seven of the 28 laps remaining. This slowed up the lead group headed by Marc Marquez, Francesco Bagnaia, Fabio Quartararo and Jorge Martin, with Joan Mir and Binder able to close right in. On lap 25, all of that group except

Spots of rain started to fall on the Red Bull Ring as the race got underway having been declared dry, which influenced Marc Marquez’s decision to make a late switch to the soft rear slick in anticipation of a flag-to-flag scenario. Styrian GP winner Jorge Martin converted pole to the holeshot, while Fabio Quartararo almost

Quartararo joined the lead group consisting of Marc Marquez, Jorge Martin, Francesco Bagnaia and Joan Mir who pitted at the end of lap 25 of 28 for their wet bikes when rainfall at the Red Bull Ring intensified. Up to that point Quartararo had been fighting for the podium and was still pushing hard when

The Pramac Ducati rider broke the new lap record he set last weekend to clinch his second pole position in a row, and the third of his rookie MotoGP campaign. Although Martin went through the first part of qualifying, the young Spanish rider managed to make it through to the final part and paid tribute

Maverick Vinales’ decision to quit the factory Yamaha team at the end of the current season back in June means Franco Morbidelli will almost certainly be promoted to replace him in 2022. With Valentino Rossi announcing his retirement from racing last week, SRT now must find two riders from a pool that has almost run

The French rider complained last Friday during a wet Styrian GP practice that conditions were a “nightmare” for him because he completely lacked confidence on his M1. A sudden thundery downpour left the Red Bull Ring sodden for the start of FP2 on Friday, though the track would dry out by the end of the

Double MotoGP race winner Petrucci has lost his place at the Tech3 team for 2022, along with team-mate Iker Lecuona, to make way for Moto2 graduates Raul Fernandez and Remy Gardner. Petrucci told Autosport in an exclusive interview during the German Grand Prix weekend that, should he lose his place in MotoGP, he would like

The Sepang Racing Team made its grand prix debut in 2015 in the Moto3 class before expanding to the Moto2 class. In 2019 it stepped up to MotoGP as Yamaha’s new satellite partner with backing from Petronas, bringing up Fabio Quartararo from Moto2 and signing 2017 Moto2 world champion Franco Morbidelli. The squad was a

Safety at the Austrian venue for MotoGP has been called into question over the past year following three-successive races being red-flagged for serious incidents – the latest coming last weekend when Dani Pedrosa and Lorenzo Savadori were involved in a fiery crash on the exit of Turn 3. The biggest incident happened at the current

The Red Bull Ring is arguably Yamaha’s weakest circuit on the entire calendar, with its long straights and hard acceleration zones at odds with the M1’s lack of power. Suffering a disastrous Austria double-header in 2020, Quartararo was strong throughout last weekend’s Styrian GP, qualifying third (having had a record pole lap cancelled for exceeding

In the closing stages of the Catalan Grand Prix in June, Yamaha rider Quartararo’s leather race suit came completely unzipped and he was forced to discard his chest protector. He continued to the chequered flag despite the issue and was later handed a three-second penalty, which dropped him to sixth, having already been demoted from

After 26 seasons in grand prix motorcycle racing, MotoGP legend Rossi will retire at the end of the 2021 campaign – something he announced last Thursday ahead of the Styrian Grand Prix. The nine-time grand prix world champion has previously expressed a desire to race GT3 cars at the conclusion of his MotoGP career, having

On the third lap of Sunday’s race at the Red Bull Ring, KTM wildcard Dani Pedrosa crashed at the Turn 3 right-hander and his bike was left stranded on the racing line. Savadori arrived at the scene unsighted and rode straight into the stricken KTM, which launched the Aprilia rider into the air as both

Over the course of last Sunday’s 27-lap Styrian race, 12 riders – including Petronas SRT stand-in Crutchlow – were hit with track limits warnings by race direction, signalling they’d exceeded the bounds on three occasions. Five riders then received long lap penalties for exceeding track limits on five occasions. Compared to the previous Dutch TT,

Espargaro qualified on pole and narrowly missed the win in last year’s edition of the Styrian GP when he was a KTM rider, while in 2021 on the Honda he was only 16th and 31.150s off victory. The Honda rider says his race was compromised by a “desperate” strategy to unsuccessfully get out of Q1

On a weekend that started with the bombshell announcement that Valentino Rossi will be retiring at the end of the 2021 season, it ended with Martin – a rookie of just six MotoGP starts – taking to the top step of the podium. Martin missed four races in 2021 due to a wrist injury he

The Australian didn’t make a great start to last Sunday’s Styrian GP but was given a second chance when it was red-flagged on lap three for the fiery crash between Dani Pedrosa and Lorenzo Savadori. Miller made a much better launch at the restart, taking the lead for the first four laps before slipping down

Suzuki finally debuted its rear ride height device during last weekend’s Styrian GP, having been the only manufacturer on the grid without it this season. The device works in the same way as the holeshot start device, in that the rider can lower the rear of the bike exiting corners to gain better acceleration out

Marquez made heavy contact with Aprilia’s Espargaro at Turn 1 on the opening lap of the red-flagged Styrian GP on Sunday, which left the latter utterly furious on track. In the second start, the pair made contact again at Turn 1, though on this occasion Marquez was forced into the side of the Aprilia rider

Sunday’s race was stopped on the third lap for a fiery crash involving KTM wildcard Dani Pedrosa and Aprilia’s Lorenzo Savadori – which left the latter with a broken ankle and has ruled him out of next week’s Austrian GP. Pramac rider Martin had been running in the lead group in the original start but

The Honda rider could only manage 15th in qualifying on Saturday at the Red Bull Ring, ending up over two tenths adrift of KTM wildcard Dani Pedrosa ahead – who hasn’t ridden in a qualifying session since 2018. Initially pleased with how the bike felt on Friday, Espargaro says the usual traction and rear grip

The Pramac Ducati rider produced a new lap record to clinch his second pole position in his rookie MotoGP campaign, following up his pole from the Doha GP, after Fabio Quartararo had his pole lap time deleted for exceeding track limits.  Saturday at the Styrian GP : Quartararo’s demotion pushed him to third place in

As reported by Autosport in June, Fernandez will step up to MotoGP with KTM and Tech3 next season having stunned so far in his debut season in Moto2 by winning three races. KTM made Fernandez’s signing official midway through Saturday’s FP4 session at the Styrian Grand Prix, with other rider market announcements due to take

MotoGP legend Rossi announced on Thursday ahead of the Styrian Grand Prix that the current season will be his last in MotoGP, marking the end of a 26-campaign career in grand prix racing. A series of incidents in 2015 culminating in the infamous Sepang Clash after Rossi accused Marquez of conspiring to sabotage his title

Reports emerged last week in the Italian press that Rossi would be selling his VR46 organisation, including its grand prix race teams, for 150 million euros to Tanal Entertainment and Saudi Prince Abdulaziz bin Abdullah bin Saud bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud. Tanal Entertainment is the company allegedly behind the VR46 MotoGP team’s title sponsorship deal with

The three-time MotoGP race winner has been called up to replace the injured Franco Morbidelli at SRT for the next three races having retired from full-time racing at the end of last season. Though now Yamaha’s official test rider, Crutchlow hasn’t ridden a motorcycle since a test in April, which made getting back into the

After the cancellation of July’s Finnish Grand Prix, the second-ever Styrian GP was added to the calendar to form an Austria double-header to kick off the second half of the season. Reigning world champion Joan Mir set the early pace on his Suzuki with a 1m25.933s, with the Japanese marque finally bringing the rear ride

Rossi made his grand prix motorcycle racing debut back in 1996 in the 125cc class, and since then has written himself into the history books as arguably the greatest of all time – both on two wheels and perhaps across all of motorsport. Winning 115 grands prix across the 125cc, 250cc and MotoGP classes, Rossi

On Thursday ahead of the Styrian Grand Prix, Rossi announced the 2021 season – his 26th grand prix world championship campaign – would be his last having elected to retire at the end of the year. Over the summer break the possibility for Rossi to race with his own VR46 team on a Ducati in

Pedrosa retired from MotoGP at the end of the 2018 season and became KTM’s official test rider from 2019 on an initial two-year deal, which he extended into 2021. The 31-time race winner was from the outset reluctant to contest any grand prix weekends as a wildcard, but will make his first race appearance since