An exciting race at the Red Bull Ring earlier today saw championship points leader Marc Marquez (Honda) and Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati) engage in a lengthy battle that came down to the final corner. In spectacular fashion, Dovizioso passed Marquez and beat him to the checkered flag.
Finishing third today was rookie Fabio Quartararo (Yamaha) who bested the factory machines of Valentino Rossi and Maverick Viñales with his lower-spec satellite Yamaha M1.
Marquez continues to lead the championship over second place Dovizioso, but his lead is cut to 58 points. Follow this link to full race results. For additional details and points, visit the official MotoGP site.
See more of MD’s great photography:
Just re-watched this race. I think Dovi spent the last couple of laps setting Marquez up by intentionally running wide into turns and letting him pass. Maq then overcooked the last turn himself (both did, kind of..), expecting Dovi to be outside of him. Brilliant stuff.
Thrilling last lap by the two..go Ducati
anyone but marquez…
That was a fantastic race between Dovi and MM. Glad they both kept it on two wheels. Dovi ran a great race, it was difficult to know if he had anything for MM there at the end, or if MM had anything in reserve. Race decided on the last turn,that was exciting to watch. More………
I blame Michelin. Soft, Medium, and Hard are meaningless with Michelin. Marc should know that by now, but he made a mistake with the tire choice. The “Softs” actually had better wear than the “Mediums”. Oh well.
The total time of 3 of his 4 second place finishes comes to less that three tenths of a second. Only Maverick beat him convincingly, but Marc margin to 3rd place was still greater than his deficit to first.
I’m sure Marc would rather have notched up another win, but I don’t think he’s too worried about it. When Marc wins, he tends to win big. When he loses, he tends to lose small. In racing, as in life, that is a sign that you’re doing things right.
I always ponder comments like this. If you’re such a tire expert, maybe Hind should hire you. My guess is that there’s a lot of factors involved – one in this case was the cooling of the track.
Another factor is how hard the Honda is on front tires. If he had chosen the soft front tire, he might not have finished at all. He usually runs the hard front.
You must not ponder it very deeply. With the Bridgestones, S/M/H actually had meaning as to the hardness and expected tire life. With Michelin, this is not the case. The designations change from track to track. The Michelin people know this. The team engineers know this.
In at least one thing, you are correct. There are multiple factors involved. It was not just the track cooling. The rain washed away much of the rubber that had been laid down in the earlier sessions.
In many ways, Michelin has done a great job with the tires, but in other ways, their inconsistencies with the tires overcome all the preparations that the teams have done.
Don’t really care if you understand it or not.
Soft/Med./Hard does not universally equal short/med./long wear or most>least traction. There are hundreds of factors that we don’t get to understand without being directly involved inside of a team.
I do agree that Marc is doing things right. I don’t think it can be disputed that he is the best motorcycle racer in the world.
A couple more wins like that and we’ll learn to say Dovi’s full name.
At least somebody can run with Marquez occasionally. If only the Yamahas had some more HP. Impressive ride by Quart despite this. Hate to see Rossi mid-pack.
Fourth is mid-pack?
Anyway, the Yamahas have no chance. They can run a fast single lap in qualifying, but as soon as their momentum is balked, which is the very nature of racing, they’re done. Not enough grunt, nowhere near enough top end. On any track with lengthy straights or slow corners, they’re sitting ducks. For Team Tuning Fork to have any real chance, the track has to be smooth and flowing, without any overly long straights or bus-stop chicanes.
There aren’t many of those on the calendar.
You are so correct. The overhead helicopter video of MM, Dovi and Fabio blasting down the straights told the whole story. The Duc and Honda were pulling 20 bike length leads on the Yamaha. Fabio is really good in the corners but he’s lacking HP or the ability to get the power to the ground. Crazy thing is that Fabio’s on a “B” spec bike. What if he had the Full Race spec bike? Yamaha hadn’t better mess around and loose a young talent like Fabio.
The B bike is obviously easier for rookies to ride fast. Zarco was faster than the A spec bikes on one and Fabio is too for the most part. Give Fabio an A spec bike and he might actually be slower.
Maybe they need another sattelite team made up of Fabio and Zarco on B bikes since Zarco told KTM he couldn’t ride their bike, wants out of his contract and is now looking for a ride for next year.
Yeah, that move by Zarco might be as foolish as the move to go to KTM in the first place.
Besides Miller on his one year contract, which I imagine will get sealed up soon for next year now that Lorenzo is staying with Honda for sure, I don’t know of any other opportunities on the GP grid. Unless maybe he has some inside info that Suzuki will start up its satellite team next year and is already in talks, where can he go?
Correction: Zarco was (occasionally) faster than the A-spec bikes, usually in qualifying and/or the beginning of races. By the final laps on Sunday, however, he was usually well behind Rossi and Vinales.
Much the same remains the case now, as well. For all of Rossi’s troubles this season, including an unheard-of-for-Rossi three straight DNFs, guess who is, once again, sitting atop the points table among all Yamaha riders?
Hint: It ain’t the “faster” #20 or #12.
Flying ducs. Sitting yams.
LOL
I was clapping and cheering out loud when Dovi made that final pass! Since I was listening on headphones my kids turned around and looked at me like I was crazy.
I like Marquez – he seems like a nice guy and he always has a positive attitude. Sure he had to learn the balance between aggressive and asshole when he first joined MotoGP, but I think it was just that – a learning curve.
That said, I’m happy to see ANYONE beat him these days because his dominance has become monotonous. At this point it seems inevitable that he will eventually be considered the GOAT, if he isn’t already.
Awesome duel between MM and Dovi once again.