Styria MotoGP exposed with red flag after Dani Pedrosa and Lorenzo Savadori’s motorcycles went up in flames

The Spanish rookie Jorge Martin has won a spectacular Styrian MotoGP, which was interrupted on lap 3 when a collision between Dani Pedrosa and Lorenzo Savadori left two motorcycles in flames.

Important points:

• The crash destroyed both bikes, but both riders were declared fit
• Rookie Jorge Martin took his team’s first ever MotoGP victory
• Australian Jack Miller had his third fall of the season

Wildcard KTM rider Pedrosa, who ran in twelfth place, crashed at the exit of the hairpin of Turn 3 with Aprilias Savadori, 21st, and appeared to collide with his motorcycle.

The Spaniard Pedrosa appeared unharmed, but the Italian Savadori was carried away on a stretcher as the marshals tried to put out the fire that engulfed both motorcycles.

The impact left burning fuel which spread over the route.

Pedrosa is racing again for the first time since retiring in late 2018, but he is credited with having helped make KTM a multi-victorious factory as a test rider.

He was the leading KTM rider at the time of his fall.

Savadori, usually Aprilia’s test driver, drives full-time for the Italian manufacturer after losing contract driver Andrea Iannone to a doping conviction.

Both bicycles were destroyed. (

AFP: Erwin Scheriau

)

It was the third MotoGP in a row that was interrupted with a red flag at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria, after both races were abandoned after accidents in 2020.

The race of August 16, 2020, the MotoGP of Austria, was stopped after a collision between Johann Zarco and Franco Morbidelli when their bikes flew over Turn 3, narrowly missing out on Yamaha factory colleagues Maverick Viñales and Valentino Rossi.

Over the next week, Styria’s MotoGP, Viñales’ brakes failed as he approached Turn 1 and he jumped at about 200 km / h before his bike spat into an air fence and deflated.

Any damage to protective fences will require a race to be abandoned.

In August 2020, the second division Moto2 race was also interrupted after Malaysian rider Hafizh Syahrin hit a fallen motorcycle and left him stretched out on the track with fragments of two motorcycles behind him.

Martin dominates new start for rookie race win

The race was restarted for 27 laps, one less than the full race distance, with Pedrosa able to complete the restart on his second motorcycle.

Savadori was declared fit but did not restart. It was later discovered that he had broken his right ankle.

Australian Jack Miller, who qualified fourth on his factory Ducati, struggled at the first start and fell back to tenth due to the red flag, but made a lightning start to lead the race before finishing fourth fell back.

Martin, who drove for Miller’s old Pramac Ducati team, took the lead from Suzuki’s defending champion Joan Mir.

On Saturday, Martin broke the all-time lap record and took his second pole position of the season.

The rest of the race was full of drama, with Viñales hoping for the championship stalling his bike for the restart and having to start out of the pit lane.

Rookie Enea Bastianini, the 2020 Moto2 champion, received the same penalty shortly afterwards, as did Honda’s Pol Espargaro and KTM’s Iker Lecuona.

Towards the end of the race, Miller’s team-mate Francesco Bagnaia received a 3-second penalty for failing to comply with a long lap penalty.

A total of nine other drivers also received warnings about route restrictions, but no penalties, including Martin.

Savadori’s team-mate Aleix Espargaro stopped with mechanical problems and KTM’s Miguel Oliveira, who won the Styrian race 2020, fell.

Miller, who had spent most of the restarted race chasing championship leader Fabio Quartararo for third place, fell 10 laps before the end.

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Having won two races so far this year but struggling for consistency and already having two DNFs, Miller hoped to restart his championship campaign at the spot where he finished third and second for Pramac Ducati in 2020.

Ultimately, Martin was never beheaded after the lead, harassed, but not pulled past Mir until he pulled away towards the end for a comfortable victory.

He was only the second rookie to win a race after Brad Binder in 2020 since Marc Marquez became world champion in his first year in the class in 2013.

It was also the premier motorcycle racing win for Pramac Ducati after getting painfully close to Miller last year.

Pedrosa finished tenth, showing the class in which he won 31 MotoGP races and three world championships in the junior classes.

Rookie Martin was not impressed by the fact that he was followed by the defending champion for most of the restarted race.

AFP: Joe Klamar

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Previously, rookie sensation Pedro Acosta won his fifth Moto3 race to extend his championship lead and Marco Bezzechi won his first Moto2 race of the season.

Australian Remy Gardner finished fourth on the Moto2 podium for the second time this season, but extended his lead over rookie team-mate Raul Fernandez, who finished seventh.