Racetrackmasters

MotoGP star Miguel Oliveira has married his step-sister and now the pair have announced that they’re expecting a baby. The 26-year-old sportsman kept his relationship a secret for 11 years before announcing that he was going out with the daughter of his dad’s second wife. Oliveira and Andreia Pimenta got engaged and started planning their wedding which had to be postponed due to his racing commitments. In a post on Instagram on 26 July, Oliveira told his fans: “This weekend we made the most important curve of our lives. We sealed our love through marriage and we want to share it with you. “I feel happy and lucky to share my life with my wife who is my other half. Thank you all.” Then five days ago they shared some more news: they’re having a baby. Once again, Oliveira took to Instagram writing: “Our lives will carry out with a special company. A job that will last the rest of our journey. Anxious to meet you my love.” The happy couple were flooded with messages of congratulations with MotoGP’s official page telling them: “We’re so happy for you and can’t wait to have a new member in the paddock.” Fellow MotoGP rider, Maverick Viñales, added: “Congrats Miguel!!! Is the best thing you could experience in the world.” According to SpeedWeek, the Red Bull KTM star and his wife will become parents at the beginning of 2022. As well as sharing a picture of himself and Pimenta on the track, he also posted a picture of a Shark helmet with the words ‘Bebé a Bordo’ which, of course, translates to ‘Baby on Board’. When Oliveira first spoke about his relationship, he told Portugese TV host Manuel Luis Goucha: “Before love there was a great friendship. We grew up together. “At some point we realised that it was more than a friendship, it is a very strong love. “We were going to get married this year, but that weekend I had a race and we had to postpone it until next year.” His dad, Paulo, spoke to a Spanish sports newspaper, saying: “I’m happy that my son is getting married to the woman of his life.”

KTM’s Brad Binder has pulled off victory in the Austrian MotoGP by staying on slicks when rain fell in the final laps at the Red Bull Ring. Binder inherited the lead when he gambled on staying out as the five ahead of him pitted for their wet weather bikes with just three laps remaining. Francesco Bagnaia, who led for the majority of the race, charged back from 10th with a lap remaining to second at the chequered flag on his factory Ducati. Fellow Ducati rider Jorge Martin similarly rode back up to the podium on his Pramac Racing entry, one week after the rookie had opened his account in the premier class by winning at the same circuit. Joan Mir (Suzuki Ecstar) was also among the lead bunch to pit at the end of Lap 25 and he took fourth, ahead of Luca Marini (Sky VR46 Esponsorama Ducati), Iker Lecuona (Tech3 KTM), and Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha). The latter has extended his championship lead to 47 points, with Bagnaia and Mir equal on points in second and third respectively, after Johann Zarco (Pramac Ducati) crashed out before the rain set in. Jack Miller (Ducati Lenovo Team) finished 11th, having dropped back to eighth before the rain shook things up. Ominous skies hung over the Red Bull Ring as the 28-lap race got underway, but it took until Lap 8 before the rain flags started flying. They were soon withdrawn but returned with seven laps to go, and it was then that Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team), who was leading at the time, made an error at Turn 3. He was bailed out by the power of his Desmosedici as Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda) attempted to capitalise, but lost first position to #93 when he ran wide at Turn 1 on Lap 25. Quartararo braked extremely deep at the top of the hill to nab second at Turn 3, and Martin emerged third by the time they exited Turn 4, with Bagnaia back to fourth. By then, Miller and Alex Rins (Suzuki Ecstar) had already rolled the dice on a change to their wet bikes from eighth and ninth respectively on Lap 23. The rain only got heavier after their stops, causing the top five to tighten up before Marquez led Bagnaia, Martin, Quartararo, and Mir into the pits on Lap 25. Binder opted against that, as did Aleix Espargaro (Gresini Aprilia) and several others, while Marquez emerged 10th, ahead of Bagnaia, Martin, Quartararo, Mir, and earlier stoppers Miller and Rins. At that point, there appeared three possibilities for Binder: he would go on to win, he would crash his Red Bull KTM, or he would be run down by one of those who had switched to their wet bike. Rain continued to pelt down and while the race-leading South African had several nervous moments, including a near-spill at Turn 3 on the final lap, he was continuing to build the gap over Aleix Espargaro. Binder kept #33 upright to take a second career MotoGP win, at KTM’s home track, even if he would be issued a three-second penalty for exceeding track limits on the last tour of the Red Bull Ring. Bagnaia looked to have made too many mistakes just before and just after his stop, but cut a swathe on the last lap to finish second, ahead of Martin, Mir, and Marini. The latter was among those who stayed out and looked like he might take a podium, as did Lecuona, who ended up sixth. Quartararo finished seventh and Valentino Rossi (Petronas SRT Yamaha) got home in eighth having also run in the top three after the stops. Alex Marquez (Castrol LCR Honda) took ninth and Aleix Espargaro dropped from second to 10th on the last lap, ahead of Miller, Danilo Petrucci (Tech3 KTM), and Rins. Marquez was 10th, first of those to have pitted, when he dropped his Honda at the start of the penultimate lap, but remounted and earned one championship point by finishing 15th. His team-mate Pol Espargaro was 16th and Cal Crutchlow (Petronas SRT Yamaha) last finisher in 17th. Earlier, the race had developed into a three-way battle between Bagnaia, Marquez and Quartararo. Bagnaia had taken the lead when pole-sitter Martin ran wide on the opening lap at Turn 4, and held it when Martin made an unsuccessful raid on Lap 6 at Turn 7. The Pramac rider instead dropped to fourth by the time he exited Turn 9, and soon lost touch with #63, #93, and #20. Quartararo had a brief spell at the head of the field and, while he lacked the power at Bagnaia’s disposal, the Frenchman tried to make up for it under brakes particularly at Turn 3. Despite the Red Bull Ring suiting the Bologna bullets, Bagnaia could not shake Marquez or Quartararo, and it was the Honda pilot who finally made a pass on him stick on Lap 25. Marquez’s spell in the lead was briefer than he would have liked, however, due to the rain which set up a fascinating conclusion to the grand prix. Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM) did not get that far, crashing out of eighth on Lap 23 at Turn 1. Zarco was running fifth when he lost the front of the #5 Ducati through Turn 9 on Lap 18, while Enea Bastianini pitted after his Avintia Esponsorama Ducati shed its left-hand side bodywork. MotoGP now has a weekend off before the British Grand Prix at Silverstone on August 27-29. Race results: Austrian MotoGP Pos Num Rider Nat Team Bike Time/Gap 1 33 Brad BINDER RSA Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM 40:46.928 2 63 Francesco BAGNAIA ITA Ducati Lenovo Team Ducati +9.991 3 89 Jorge MARTIN ESP Pramac Racing Ducati +11.570 4 36 Joan MIR ESP Team SUZUKI ECSTAR Suzuki +12.623 5 10 Luca MARINI ITA SKY VR46 Avintia Ducati +14.831 6 27 Iker LECUONA ESP Tech 3 KTM Factory Racing KTM +14.952 7 20 Fabio QUARTARARO FRA Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP…

Jorge Martin has backed up his maiden MotoGP pole with another at the Red Bull Ring just a week later, in qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix. Martin had put his Pramac Ducati in first position on the grid for the Michelin Grand Prix of Styria, which he went on to win, and will start from the same spot in Round 11 of the season at the Spielberg circuit. The Spanish rookie had a tumble at the end of Free Practice 4, was already going into Qualifying 1, and then also had to break the all time lap record if he was to deny championship leader Fabio Quartararo pole position. Martin did just that, meaning Quartararo is set to start from second spot on his Monster Energy Yamaha, with the Ducati Lenovo Team’s Francesco Bagnaia also making the front row. Practice pace-setter Johann Zarco (Pramac Ducati) set the fastest first flyer in clocking a 1:23.984s, but it was Quartararo soon on top with a 1:22.677s. That was a new all time lap record at the time and the Frenchman even set a subsequent 1:22.794s before pitting, while next-best at the end of the first runs was Martin on a 1:23.037s, with Zarco third on a 1:23.399s. Joan Mir (Suzuki Ecstar) then went to third when he clocked a 1:23.378s, before Bagnaia, who lost multiple laps for track limits breaches on his first run, finally set a lap time when he broke the beam at a 1:23.218s. The Italian consolidated third spot in setting a 1:23.063s just before the chequered flag, at which point Quartararo remained fastest. However, both of Pramac Racing’s riders were on good pace and while Zarco missed the front row in setting a 1:23.120s, Martin came through to lay down a 1:22.643s and thus move from the middle of the front row to pole. Zarco ended up fourth, Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda) took fifth with a 1:23.227s, and Jack Miller (Ducati Lenovo) earned sixth with a 1:23.320s. Row 3 will be Joan Mir (Suzuki Ecstar) alongside Aleix Espargaro (Gresini Aprilia) and Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM), with Row 4 comprised of Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM), Pol Espargaro (Repsol Honda), and Takaaki Nakagami (Idemitsu LCR Honda). Alex Rins (Suzuki Ecstar) will start from 13th having come up just over a tenth shy of progression from Qualifying 1. Rins had just consolidated second spot with a 1:23.470s when Oliveira knocked him out with a 1:23.365s just before the chequered flag, and #42 will be joined on Row 5 will by Alex Marquez (Castrol LCR Honda) and Enea Bastianini (Avintia Esponsorama Ducati). Row 6 will be Iker Lecuona (Tech3 KTM), Luca Marini (Sky VR46 Esponsorama Ducati), and Valentino Rossi (Petronas SRT Yamaha), with the 20-rider field rounded out by Danilo Petrucci (Tech3 KTM) and Cal Crutchlow (Petronas SRT Yamaha). AUSTRIAN MOTOGP, RED BULL RING – FULL QUALIFYING RESULTS POS RIDER NAT TEAM TIME/DIFF LAP MAX 1 Jorge Martin SPA Pramac Ducati (GP21)* 1’22.643s 7/7 315k 2 Fabio Quartararo FRA Monster Yamaha (YZR-M1) +0.034s 3/8 309k 3 Francesco Bagnaia ITA Ducati Team (GP21) +0.420s 8/9 315k 4 Johann Zarco FRA Pramac Ducati (GP21) +0.477s 7/7 313k 5 Marc Marquez SPA Repsol Honda (RC213V) +0.584s 7/7 313k 6 Jack Miller AUS Ducati Team (GP21) +0.677s 8/8 314k 7 Joan Mir SPA Suzuki Ecstar (GSX-RR) +0.735s 6/10 309k 8 Aleix Espargaro SPA Aprilia Gresini (RS-GP) +0.780s 7/7 312k 9 Miguel Oliveira POR Red Bull KTM (RC16) +0.856s 8/8 310k 10 Brad Binder RSA Red Bull KTM (RC16) +0.925s 7/8 314k 11 Pol Espargaro SPA Repsol Honda (RC213V) +1.095s 7/7 317k 12 Takaaki Nakagami JPN LCR Honda (RC213V) +1.347s 3/7 309k   Qualifying 1:           13 Alex Rins SPA Suzuki Ecstar (GSX-RR) 1’23.47s 8/9 309k 14 Alex Marquez SPA LCR Honda (RC213V) 1’23.535s 8/9 311k 15 Enea Bastianini ITA Avintia Ducati (GP19)* 1’23.79s 4/9 313k 16 Iker Lecuona SPA KTM Tech3 (RC16) 1’23.825s 6/8 306k 17 Luca Marini ITA Sky VR46 Avintia Ducati (GP19)* 1’23.834s 6/7 310k 18 Valentino Rossi ITA Petronas Yamaha (YZR-M1) 1’23.939s 3/7 306k 19 Danilo Petrucci ITA KTM Tech3 (RC16) 1’24.405s 4/8 308k 20 Cal Crutchlow GBR Petronas Yamaha (YZR-M1) 1’24.509s 7/8 304k

Halfway through the 2021 MotoGP season, it’s an open secret that things are bad inside the works Yamaha camp – or at least on one side of the team’s pit box. Maverick Vinales, already set to leave at the end of the year after breaking his contract, seems desperately unhappy, and it’s being reflected in his results. But are things bad enough to lead to the Spaniard not even seeing out the rest of the season? The relationship between Vinales and the team hasn’t exactly been plain sailing for quite some time – but it has undoubtedly taken a turn for the worse in the past few weeks. All coming to a head in the embarrassment of finishing the German Grand Prix at the Sachsenring in last place, things have got worse rather than better since then despite a brief upturn in form for him. In fact, the mood within the team was actually highlighted not by failure but by success, with an atmosphere in the winners’ enclosure so tense you could have cut it with a butter knife after Vinales finished second to team-mate Fabio Quartararo at the Dutch TT only a week after his humiliating Germany result. He’s since apologised for the disrespect he showed to his fans with his attitude after the second placed finish, but it was nonetheless too late to change much – with news coming less than 24 hours later confirming that Vinales would part ways with the team for next season. He’s taking the very rare step of breaking his two-year contract at the halfway point and looking set to lose a colossal amount of money as he makes the (still to be officially announced) switch to Aprilia. There was hope that taking some time away from the paddock for MotoGP’s extended five-week summer break would give Vinales the chance to calm down and reset his brain, but it seems like that has failed to happen. He turned up for the Styrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring knowing that it was going to be a difficult weekend for Yamaha thanks to the track layout, and it turned into a complete disaster as Vinales blamed a litany of issues for his poor race – problems that eventually led him to pull into the pits with only a lap to go to seemingly avoid the ignominy of finishing in last place for the second time in three races. Making matters even worse, team-mate Quartararo had none of the same issues, fighting forward to an excellent and somewhat unexpected podium finish behind Jorge Martin and Joan Mir. It’s clear from body language alone that things on the other side of the garage are far from fixed – and with incredibly manic interviews to the media over the course of the weekend, Vinales is very clearly deeply unhappy with his position within the team. Which begs the question: is there a chance that we’ll see the nine-time MotoGP race winner fail to even finish the season with Yamaha? After all, there is precedent for the switch, with KTM pulling off exactly the same move in 2019 when it parted ways with Johann Zarco. Like Vinales at Yamaha, Zarco was deeply unhappy at being unable to find performance from the RC16, he too was accused of making the garage a deeply unhappy workplace, and after he and KTM initially announced plans to end their two-year deal a year early things continued to get even worse and Zarco was paid to stay at home for the final six races of the year. Arguably Yamaha has an even better replacement option than KTM had at the time, too, in the shape of test rider Cal Crutchlow. While Zarco was replaced by Finnish racer Mika Kallio, Yamaha has a proven three-time MotoGP race winner who it could drop into Vinales’ place. But as much as Vinales might actually be hoping for some sort of release from his Yamaha deal given the impact continuing with the team seems to be having on him, the reality is that the situation between him and Zarco is inherently different thanks to one key detail: culture. Much is made of the difference in MotoGP between the corporate culture of the traditional Japanese factories and the very different approach taken by the relative newcomer European teams. KTM in particular has an air of ruthlessness about it – just look at the way the sacking of Danilo Petrucci and Iker Lecuona was handled last weekend while the pair were on track for free practice four. That’s not the way that Yamaha does things. It’s a much less impulsive company, sometimes to its detriment – and this is very likely to mean that Vinales has a long second half of the season ahead as he grits his teeth and bears it.