2025 Austrian MotoGP: Marc Marquez maintains sprint win streak, Pecco Bagnaia retires

Ducati’s Marc Marquez took his sixth successive sprint victory in MotoGP 2025 after beating Alex Marquez in the Saturday race at the Austrian Grand Prix.

After a crash in qualifying left him fourth on the grid, the 32-year-old’s hopes of a 12th sprint win 13 rounds looked under threat.

But he jumped to second off the line at the start and would overhaul Gresini Ducati’s Alex Marquez on lap 10 of 14 before easing away by 1.180s to the chequered flag.

Victory in the sprint represents Marc Marquez’s first win of any kind at the Red Bull Ring and sees his championship advantage boosted to 123 over Alex Marquez.

KTM’s Pedro Acosta completed the podium ahead of polesitter Marco Bezzecchi on the factory Aprilia.

Pecco Bagnaia’s race was ruined off the line when he suffered huge wheelspin at the start, dropping him from third on the grid to 14th.

A persistent issue with his rear soft Michelin rear eventually led to him running off at Turn 1 on lap eight before he retired to the pits on the following tour.

Bagnaia’s issue off the line proved beneficial for team-mate Marc Marquez, who was able to come through from fourth to snatch second at Turn 1 as Alex Marquez leapt Bezzecchi for the lead.

The Marquez brothers would run line astern for the opening nine laps, with Alex Marquez very briefly pulling his lead to over half a second -though proved unable to keep the factory Ducati behind him at bay.

A small headshake exiting the Turn 2 chicane at the start of lap 10 allowed Marc Marquez to get the run he needed to take the lead into Turn 3.

He instantly put half a second between the pair, before clearing off by over a second to the finish.

A small mistake late on netted him a track limits warning to add a little bit of pressure on his lead, though this ultimately didn’t deter him.

Acosta moved into third ahead of Bezzecchi on lap two and tried to pressure the Ducatis ahead of him.

His victory challenge would fade, however, with Acosta over three seconds off the lead at the chequered flag. But he would keep Bezzecchi’s late surge in check to register back-to-back sprint podiums.

Bezzecchi was 0.906s behind in fourth ahead of KTM’s Brad Binder and Gresini rookie Fermin Aldeguer, who also suffered wheelspin off the line.

Enea Bastianini was seventh for Tech3 KTM, while the final points went to VR46 Ducati’s Fabio Di Giannantonio and LCR Honda’s Johann Zarco - who was the only rider on the medium rear in the sprint.

Reigning champion Jorge Martin fought through to 10th after running off at Turn 2 on the opening lap, with the Aprilia rider heading top Yamaha Fabio Quartararo by 1.276s.

An apparent ride height device problem forced Trackhouse rider Raul Fernandez to retire out of a points paying position on lap 10.

Tech3’s Maverick Vinales was a non-starter due to pain from the shoulder he injured in Germany in July.

Full 2025 MotoGP Austrian Grand Prix sprint results