Marc Marquez wins Austrian GP for first time to extend MotoGP championship lead

The Hindu

4 days ago

Six-times MotoGP champion Marc Marquez marked the 1,000th premier class race in history by winning the Austrian Grand Prix for the first time in his career to take a mammoth 142-point lead over his brother Alex in the championship.
Having won Saturday's sprint from the second row, Marquez claimed the sprint-race double for the sixth Grand Prix in a row, with the Spaniard unbeaten since the British Grand Prix in May.
Not since 2014 had Marquez claimed six Grand Prix wins on the bounce as he inches closer to a seventh MotoGP crown with nine rounds left.
Gresini Racing rookie Fermin Aldeguer found late race pace to finish second while Aprilia's pole sitter Marco Bezzecchi, who kept Marquez at bay for as long as he could, finished third. Alex Marquez finished 10th after serving a long-lap penalty.
"Super, super happy to finally take the first victory here in Austria," Marquez said.
"I'm happy with six victories in a row, but (I need to) keep focus, next week we have another race."
Bezzecchi had claimed his first pole with Aprilia on Saturday and despite finishing fourth in the sprint, this time he had the perfect launch to lead Francesco Bagnaia and Marquez into turn one.
The two Ducatis went side by side on lap one when Marquez briefly overtook his teammate but Bagnaia did not relent and took the place back to stay in second.
However, Marquez made the same move on the next lap to take second and set his sights on Bezzecchi, waiting for the right opportunity to pounce.
"In the first part he (Bezzecchi) was super strong but then I just waited, I tried in the beginning but it was too risky, then I preferred to wait and attack in the end," Marquez added.
Alex Marquez had a poor start and with a long-lap penalty to serve for causing a crash at the Czech Grand Prix, the younger Marquez sibling fell out of the top 10 when he rejoined the field.
MARQUEZ PRESSURE
Bezzecchi soaked up the pressure but the Aprilia rider was unable to shake off the red Ducati hunting him down.
Bagnaia was struggling with his bike and he eventually began fading, giving way to KTM's Pedro Acosta and Aldeguer as the two youngsters fought for third.
Bagnaia had been undefeated in Austria for three years but he was a shadow of the ringmaster who had dominated at the Red Bull Ring since 2022 as he was bumped down to eighth.
Marquez finally attacked on lap 19 and squeezed past the Aprilia but Bezzecchi put his head down and took first place back from the Spaniard, eager to deny him a first victory at the Red Bull Ring.
But Marquez was on the ascendancy and he finally broke Bezzecchi's resistance on the next lap, using the Aprilia's slipstream to dive into turn one and take the lead.
As Bezzecchi made a futile attempt to reel Marquez in, Aldeguer then made a play for second place and the Gresini rookie made his move with five laps to go on turn one to slot in behind Marquez.
Marquez responded to the challenge and kept Aldeguer at bay to take the chequered flag but the rookie was over the moon with his best result in MotoGP.
"I'm super happy because at the end, Austria is not one of my favourite tracks like Le Mans," he said. "Making two podiums on bad tracks for me is incredible."