MotoGP world championship leader Marc Marquez has overcome a crash in qualifying to win the sprint race at the Austrian Grand Prix, the Ducati rider victorious in a sprint for the 12th time this season and sixth time in succession at the Red Bull Ring on Saturday.
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The 32-year-old extended his world championship lead to 123 points over younger brother Alex Marquez (Gresini Ducati), the Marquez brothers finishing 1-2 in a sprint for the 11th time in 13 sprints this season.
KTM’s Pedro Acosta, who scored his first podiums of the season in the previous round in the Czech Republic, came through from seventh on the grid to finish third.
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Marc Marquez, who crashed late in qualifying at the turn two chicane and started from an equal season-worst fourth on the grid, immediately leapt to second at the first corner behind his younger sibling as his factory Ducati teammate Francesco Bagnaia plummeted down the order from the front row of the grid after suffering excessive wheelspin at the start, the winner of the past three Austrian Grands Prix dropping to 14th place.
The Marquez siblings broke away after Acosta, who aggressively overtook pole-sitter Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia) on the second lap, ran wide on lap five and dropped a second behind Marc Marquez.
Marc Marquez sliced a half-second deficit to one-tenth of a second on lap nine, then passed his brother for the lead exiting the turn two chicane with five laps to go and bolted, eventually crossing the line to win by 1.180secs.
PIT TALK PODCAST: MotoGP is back … but can Marquez banish his bad memories of Austria? Listen to Pit Talk below.
“The mistake of the qualifying penalised a bit the race, but I was super constant on the start and I was able to be second,” Marc Marquez said.
“I saw immediately that it was difficult to be close to Alex, but then I decide to wait a bit. When the tyres start to drop [grip]it’s when I feel better and I start to push.”
Bezzecchi finished fourth, while Bagnaia, battling a rear tyre problem, retired from the sprint on lap eight, the first time in six starts in Austria where he hasn’t won dating back to 2022.
Australia’s Jack Miller finished 17th on a miserable weekend for Yamaha, with three of its four riders – Alex Rins (16th), Miller and Miller’s teammate Miguel Oliveira (18th) – classified as the final three finishers.
Miller qualified 20th, his worst starting position since the final race of his rookie season in 2015, but made the most of Bagnaia’s poor start breaking up the pack and rose to 14th in the early stages before finishing 20.844secs behind Marquez after 14 laps.
The 30-year-old’s troubled Saturday came after he was fined 1000 Euros (A$1798) for irresponsible riding after he rode his Yamaha back to the pits when it was smoking during Friday afternoon practice.
The 28-lap Austrian Grand Prix, round 13 of the 22-round MotoGP season, will take place at 11pm on Sunday (AEST).