Could Marquez have spiced up dull Austria MotoGP battle without start drama?

The memories of Brad Binder taking a shock home win for KTM at the Red Bull Ring in 2021 are still fresh in the minds of MotoGP fans. It’s not often you see a rider nursing slick tyres in a flag-to-flag race with rain lashing down and still coming away with victory.

The 2019 edition of the Spielberg was equally a classic thanks to an exhilarating duel between Marc Marquez and Andrea Dovizioso, which was decided on the last turn of the final lap when the Ducati rider lunged up the inside of the Spaniard and hung on to the lead on the dash to the finish line.

When you consider that Spielberg has delivered those two iconic races relatively recently, it’s sad that the last two editions of the Austrian Grand Prix have been rather dull, particularly due to a lack of fight at the front.

It’s not that these races featured very limited overtaking, as evidenced by a number of battles witnessed lower down the grid. But as in 2023, when Francesco Bagnaia cleared off into the distance after beating Binder off the line, the battle for victory on Sunday was effectively over by the end of the second lap. Bagnaia snatched the lead from polesitter Jorge Martin under braking for Turn 1 then was never headed for the remainder of the race.

To Martin’s credit, he did hang on to the tail of the factory Ducati rider for the first 14 laps, but as soon as the race reached its halfway point the Pramac man began to drop away with heavy degradation on his front tyre. In the end, Bagnaia’s 3.2s winning margin made for a rather underwhelming race at a track that has been home to some scintillating action in the past.

One of the reasons why the Austrian GP was so mediocre was Marc Marquez’s disastrous start from third on the grid, caused by a disengaged holeshot device. This left him vulnerable to contact from Franco Morbidelli into Turn 1 and caused him to plummet down to 13th place.

Marquez recovered with some brilliant overtaking moves, ironically breathing life in an otherwise sedate race, to claim fourth at the finish. But his pace left many to wonder what could have been had he pulled away cleanly from the front row.

Could the six-time champion realistically have had anything against the trio of GP24s that locked out the podium? A closer look at the data provides some answers.