Dovi bests Marquez in Spielberg epic
Andrea Dovizioso maintained Ducati’s 100% winning record at the Red Bull Ring, in Spielberg, Austria, after making a masterful move on Marc Marquez to win the Austrian Grand Prix at the last corner.
The fast Spielberg circuit has been happy hunting ground for the Italian bikes over the years, with the Desmosedici’s strong horsepower and stability under braking contributing to three wins out of three since the return of the Austrian Grand Prix in 2016.
Practice and qualifying suggested that world champion Marc Marquez might be able to break the Ducati domination. The Red Bull Ring is the only circuit on the 2019 calendar at which the Spaniard has never won, but the Repsol Honda rider set pole position by four tenths of a second to suggest that this might be his year.
From the lights it was the Petronas Yamaha of Fabio Quartararo who set the pace as Dovizioso and Marquez clashed on the opening lap – pushing the champ down the pack. Britain’s Cal Crutchlow was an innocent victim on lap two, tagging the Ducati of Tito Rabat, who in turn was taking avoiding action after the KTM of Pol Espargaro broke down in front of him. Rabat was able to stay up, but the Brit found himself down in the graveland out of the race.
Up front, Dovizioso hit the front of lap six and along with Marquez was able to pull away from the impressive rookie Quartararo. The pair were never more than a few bike lengths apart as they traded the lead for the majority of the remaining 22 laps, but when Marquez hit the front on the penultimate lap, it looked like the Ducati winning streak would be over. Dovi, however, had other thoughts and pulled off a beautiful and brave pass on the very last corner to take just his second win of the season and reduce Marquez’ championship advantage to 58 points, with eight races remaining.
“Today I’m so happy, because this victory was really important for me,” said Dovizioso. “Towards the end of the race I had good right-side grip on the tyre and this allowed me to successfully attempt that incredible overtaking move at the final corner. My strategy for the race was to be aggressive right from the opening lap, but Marquez was more aggressive than me. He immediately tried to impose his rhythm but I was always able to respond and in the final stages I think he had more wear on his tyres than me so I could stay right on his tail until the end, and attempt that crazy passing move on him at the final corner. I want to thank Ducati and my team because today we did everything just perfectly.”
Marquez was upbeat, despite missing out by less than a quarter of a second, adding: “I’m happy because today we made a mistake with the rear tyre, immediately I saw all the soft tyres had better grip and even their consistency at the end was better than us. Even like this I tried because I’m Marc and I need to try! The second place is good, we missed in the last corner with a lot of sliding but Dovi did an incredible job. Still we are able to leave here with a 58-point lead so we will keep continuing like this. Even when we are not in the best shape, we are able to finish like this which is positive overall.”
Quartararo held on to third for his third career MotoGP podium, an impressive result at a track which didn’t appear to favour his Yamaha. He added: “We never expected to be able to finish on the podium at this track, but I managed to get a good start and when Marc and Andrea went a little bit wide it let me through. The first five laps in the lead were the most difficult. Taking the soft tyre was a bet, but we learned many things in this race and it paid off. I knew that the leaders could always push each other wide or something, so I tried to push all race to stay close to them just in case – and I hope that next time I can be in the fight for the win with them!”
Quartararo led home a trio of Yamahas, with factory riders Valentino Rossi and Maverick Vinales fifth and sixth. “On paper we should have suffered more in Spielberg, but already on Friday morning we were more competitive here than we were in the past,” said Rossi. “The race was good because at the beginning I was able to recover some positions, coming from tenth on the grid. Unfortunately, the guys in front of me were a bit faster. Anyway, fourth place is good. Maverick and Rins were also recovering momentum, but I was able to stay in front of them, so it was a good race.”
The next round takes place in two weeks’ time, when MotoGP comes to the United Kingdom and the British Grand Prix returns to the newly resurfaced Silverstone circuit in Northamptonshire.