Here’s how we thought this Austrian Grand Prix would go – Marc Marquez gets a good start, early lead, and controls the pace to an easy race win. What we got instead was incredible wheel to wheel action and fans on the edge of their seats. The 1000th MotoGP race was anything but boring.
Bezzecchi vs Marquez
As the lights went out, it was clear that Bezzecchi wasn’t going to give up his chance at victory that easily. He got a great start and immediately went defensive, closing the door on Bagnaia and leading the group into turn 1.
Marc Marquez also got a good start, allowing him to close the gap on his teammate and eventually pass him on the second lap. This fight for P2 allowed Bezzecchi to pull a lead of about a second by the third lap. It seemed as though he had enough pace to maintain this lead to end of the race, but by lap 8, Marc Marquez showed just what it means to be a multiple time MotoGP champion.
Late on the brakes, bold in the corners, quicker lap times – Marquez combined his knowledge, experience and talent to perfectly execute his move for P1. The Ducati rider waited until lap 16 to go for that win, allowing his bike to cool. However, Marco Bezzecchi was not about to give up his win that quickly, resulting in an amazing few lap battle between the two.
On lap 20, Marc managed to get past Marco and maintain this position for the remainder of the race.
Two different races at Gresini Racing
Alex Marquez started this race in P2 while his teammate Fermin Aldeguer started in P6. The duo got relatively good starts with Marquez staying ahead initially.
A looming Long Lap Penalty was waiting for Alex Marquez, pending from the last race before the summer break. He took his penalty on lap 4, dropping him all the way back to P13. Unfortunately he was not able to recover well from this, finding himself stuck in P10 for the majority of the race.
The Austrian Grand Prix was far better for his teammate, with Aldeguer staring the race battling his way up the order. His battle with Pedro Acosta for P4 was spectacular – camera cuts to the pit lane showed just how tense the on track battle was making the teams. Neither rider wanted to back down and what fans got was great MotoGP racing.
The duo were lapping quicker than an unsuspecting Francesco Bagnaia in P3, eventually both passing him. In the later stages of the race, Aldeguer finally passes Acosta for P3.
Aldeguer’s late race change was the stuff of champions
5 laps to go and Aldeguer began closing in on the top two with tremendous speed, lapping half a second quicker than both of them. Turn 3 was a prime overtaking spot in today’s race and this was exactly where he claimed P2.
Late on the brakes, bold in the corners, quicker lap times – Fermin Aldeguer was on the charge and was hungry for his best MotoGP finish. By the end of the race, he wasn’t close enough to Marc Marquez and so finished P2. Despite not getting the win, he and the team were anything but upset, knowing that a victory could be on the horizon.
Notable events
On lap 14, the yellow flags came out when last year’s champion Jorge Martin crashed through turn 7. The Aprillia rider has spent a large amount of this season away or in hospital due to injuries. The impact wasn’t particularly big but being on the road to recovery, the medical team made quick work of checking in on him.
The cameras later showed him sat with his engineers, showing fans that he was okay from the crash.
Later on lap 21, Fabio Di Giannantonio pulled off onto the track run off after his bike had caught alight. He was quick to get off his bike and marshals were at the scene quickly with fire extinguishers. Fabio was completely okay.