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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1400350
MOTOGP P58 FIM MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 9 / AUGUST 6-8, 2021 RED BULL RING / SPIELBERG, AUSTRIA the gravel at turn six with nine laps remaining for his second DNF in a row. Along with Martin, the star of the race was, once again, the Sunday man, Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM). The South African was electric at the restart, grid- ding from 16th and nabbing both Johann Zarco (Pramac Ducati) and Takaaki Nakagami (Idemitsu LCR Honda) on the last lap to fin- ish fourth. Nakagami and Zarco crossed the line fifth and sixth, respectively. Seventh was the second factory Suzuki of Alex Rins, just ahead of the typically ruthless Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda), who had two major start collisions On the restart, it was Martin who grabbed the advantage, with the race distilling into a two-rider tussle between Martin and current World Champion Joan Mir, the latter now with a rear squatting device fitted to his factory Suzuki. Martin would not lose his cool despite the relentless pressure of Mir, who never got close enough to have a crack for the victory. He would finish second by 1.5 sec- onds, which helped him cement third in the championship table. Finishing in the number-three position at Styria was Monster Energy Yamaha of Fabio Quartar- aro, who also withstood constant pressure by Ducati's Jack Miller before the Aussie dumped it in MYOWNRACE 89 JORGE MARTIN 1ST MOTOGP "It feels great, I can't believe it," winner Jorge Mar n said. "This sport moves so quick; I s ll haven't had me to process everything. Today was a great race. The first start wasn't super good, but I could see I could have a good pace to race Pecco [Bagnaia]. But then in the second start, I felt be er. I was a li le scared because I saw Mir was behind and I know he's very strong on braking, which is dangerous for the victory. But I wasn't nervous. I just tried to keep my pace and focus, and when I saw the 0.2 gap, I tried harder. I got a track limits warning, so I had to be care- ful, but then I got the gap to nearly two seconds. This was great because my physi- cal condi on was not great [Mar n is s ll recovering from his Portuguese MotoGP prac ce crash], so I could slow my pace a li le and s ll finish first. I want to dedicate this victory to my grandfather, who is fight- ing in [the] hospital." 36 JOAN MIR 2ND MOTOGP "It was a tough race, it wasn't easy trying to follow Jorge and towards the end of the race I made a mistake when trying to catch him and I went wide," Joan Mir said. "Jorge was impressive today and very