A tooth and nail fight between Ducati’s Jorge Lorenzo and Honda’s Marc Marquez saw the former take a fine win in MotoGP’s Austrian GP with Andrea Dovizioso rounding the Top 3.
Dovizioso was caught out at the start as Marquez took the lead from Lorenzo at Red Bull Ring in MotoGP’s Round 11. The Italian had to take evasive action when Marquez cut across on the outside with Lorenzo in the inside of the two.
Marquez then led the way from Lorenzo and Dovizioso as the Top 3 built a significant gap to fourth placed LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow. The British rider cleared Pramac Ducati’s Danilo Petrucci on the line as Suzuki’s Alex Rins rose to fifth from 10th.
Over at Yamaha, while Valentino Rossi gained four places to 10th after the opening lap, teammate Maverick Vinales dropped to 15th from 11th to be behind Honda’s Dani Pedrosa and Angel Nieto Ducati’s Alvaro Bautista.
Also dropping down the order was Tech 3 Yamaha’s Johann Zarco. Meanwhile, Marquez continued to lead at the front from the Ducati riders in a close fight. With 10 laps remaining, Lorenzo finally found a way past Marquez.
Dovizioso tried to sneak past as well but went wide on the run-off which cost him time. Marquez though fought back already and retook the lead on the same lap, but Lorenzo once again got ahead of his fellow countryman.
Lorenzo kept the lead until three laps remaining when he went wide in the right-hander and allowed Marquez to sneak through. It was then a back and forth fight as the lead changed hands a couple of times between the two with Lorenzo ahead of Marquez.
It came down to the last lap as Marquez tried to take the inside line on Turn 3 and nearly succeeded but Lorenzo on the outside kept the gas on to still stay ahead and see-through the lap to take his third win of the season.
Marquez fell short by 0.130s but still extended his points lead with Rossi finishing outside the Top 5. The Spaniard has 201 points after 11 races to Rossi’s 142, with Lorenzo now jumping to third with 130 to his name.
After his mistake in Turn 1, Dovizioso fell back to finish a lonely third with Crutchlow fourth and Petrucci fifth – the Italian was warned for track limits by the race stewards. Rossi, meanwhile, fought his way up to sixth.
He had some fine duels with Aprilia’s Alexis Espargaro, Pedrosa and Suzuki’s Alex Rins – clearing Rins in the last few laps to salvage 10 points and keep himself in second still in the riders’ standing but Yamaha has lost its top spot to Honda and Ducati.
Pedrosa was only 0.130s behind Rossi after the Honda rider also had to fight through having dropped outside the Top 10 on Lap 1. Rins eventually finished eighth ahead of Zarco, who had a moment with Suzuki’s Andrea Iannone early on.
The Top 10 was rounded by Bautista who regained the positions he lost on Lap 1. He nearly took Zarco but fell short by just the 0.084s over the line. Close behind was Avintia Ducati’s Tito Rabat – 0.270s behind Bautista.
The second Yamaha of Vinales could only make up handful of places to 12th with Iannone in 13th after the Italian went wide midway in the race to drop to 18th. The lone KTM of Smith crossed the line in 14th to score points at the team’s home event.
The last point was scored by LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami as the Japanese rider fended off the the charge from Tech 3 Yamaha’s Hafizh Syahrin. Aprilia’s Espargaro looked good early on but lost places in the second half to finish 17th.
Pramac Racing’s Jack Miller was 18th from Marc VDS Honda’s Franco Morbidelli, Aprilia’s Scott Redding, Angel Nieto Ducati’s Karel Abraham and Marc VDS Honda’s Thomas Luthi with the lone non-finish by Avintia Ducati’s Xavier Simeon.
