Marquez increases his points lead, taking hard-fought 2nd in Austria

Marc Marquez scored a hard-fought second place at a sunny Red Bull Ring, sharing the podium with race-winner Jorge Lorenzo and third-place rider Andrea Dovizioso.

Marc ultimately missed the win by only 0.130”, and definitely not for lack of trying. After taking the lead on the second lap, he tried to pull a gap at the front, but Lorenzo and Dovizioso closely chased him for most of the race. An inevitable battle was looming.

It began on lap 19 and had all of the 92,955 spectators on the edges of their seats until the last lap. At that point, it was duel between the two fellow countrymen, as Dovizioso had fallen slightly behind.

Although he still has yet to tame the Red Bull Ring, Marc leaves the track with an increased advantage in the points standings (+59 over Valentino Rossi) and the enjoyment he always feels after having given it his all in a race battle.

Marc Márquez:
“Today I enjoyed the race a lot because I finished second but really gave it everything. In Brno I didn’t have enough confidence, while here, I tried. I started to push hard from the beginning as I had chosen the hard rear tyre with the target of trying to open a gap early on, because I knew that Dovi and Lorenzo would be very fast at the end of the race, when the tyres dropped. That was our strategy today and for a short while I believed I would be able to carry it out, but soon they caught me again.

It was a great battle. I tried to defend, to change my lines, but it was impossible. This is a track where they’re very strong, especially on the straights. In these situations we try to manage at our best, and we also have our very competitive points; we were very strong on braking and entering the corners. For sure we will use those strengths and have our say at other tracks. So far we’ve always been right there, always on the podium, and that’s the most important thing. We lost only five points on Lorenzo and gained more on Valentino, who’s second in the standings. We’re happy with this result; we’ve done a great job here.”

Podium for Marc Márquez in his 100th MotoGP race

Marc Márquez, who started from third, was in the leading group from the early stages of the race. On the last lap the Repsol Honda rider contested victory against Dovizioso and Lorenzo, finally finishing third.

With this result, the reigning MotoGP World Champion increases his advantage in the overall standings to 49 points.

Marc Márquez:
“Our target for the weekend was to extend the lead in the Championship, and we achieved that. We arrived here with a 46-point edge, and we leave with 49, which is very good. Already yesterday I was expecting that Lorenzo and Dovi would be the strongest opponents, maybe with Valentino, and they were all there today. I was ready to fight as well, but honestly it was difficult to fight against the two Ducatis as they had strong acceleration and braking stability. I tried but it wasn’t possible, so we took this positive third place. Today was my 100th race in MotoGP, and I used the experience that comes with that; if it had been my second or third MotoGP race, I probably would have tried for the win and either got it or crashed, but it was the 100th and I used wisdom. Third is my worst useable result this year, and I’m happy with it because we finished very close to the top at a track where we often struggle. I’m confident, as better tracks for us will come.”