Once upon a time, pretty much every race at the Red Bull Ring ended in a thrilling last lap, last corner battle. Two or three riders would make it to the final lap and then throw everything into gaining that last bit of advantage coming onto the straight and across the line.
Pecco Bagnaia put an end to that last year, stamping his authority on the Austrian GP. The factory Ducati rider won the sprint race by over 2 seconds, the main race by over 5 seconds. Bagnaia seemed to be able to bend the Red Bull Ring to his will, and leave the rest of the field for dead. It wasn't even close.
On the face of it, the 2024 sprint race looks very much the same. Pecco Bagnaia's advantage this year was even bigger - 4.6 seconds over Jorge Martin. But that is in no way the complete story. Bagnaia is in fantastic shape, and is very hard to even stay with, let alone beat in Austria. But his margin over Martin had much more to do with the Pramac Ducati rider than with Bagnaia himself.
Forced error?
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