Dovizioso pips Marquez in Austria
Third win of season raises Italian to 2nd in standings
Andrea Dovizioso held off the hard- charging Marc Marquez to win a thrilling Austrian MotoGP Grand Prix for Ducati on Sunday.
World championship leader Marquez had started on pole but Italian Dovizioso got the better of an incredible battle where the lead changed hands several times, including twice on the final corner.
Three- time world champion Marquez’s Honda teammate and compatriot Dani Pedrosa came third.
Dovizioso’s third win of the season moved him up to second behind Marquez in the standings, 16 points back, as Spaniard Maverick Vinales dropped to third after finishing only sixth.
That was one place above his Yamaha teammate and seventime world champion Valentino Rossi of Italy.
Dovizioso had started second on the grid but dropped to third as his Ducati teammate and three- time world champion Jorge Lorenzo jumped from third to first at the start.
Dovizioso, who was second in Austria to his then teammate Andrea Iannone last year, took advantage of the battle between Marquez and Lorenzo to snatch the lead.
Marquez also passed Lorenzo to launch a thrilling battle with Dovizioso.
The Spaniard seemed to have an edge in speed but every time he passed the Italian, usually after a daring and almost reckless lunge into a turn, his ice- cool rival quickly took back the lead.
Their battle allowed Pedrosa to close right in around six laps from the end but he couldn’t challenge for the victory and Dovizioso prevailed.
Italy’s Franco Morbidelli earned his seventh win of the season with victory in Moto2.
World championship leader Morbidelli beat fellow Kalex riders Alex Marquez of Spain and Switzerland’s Thomas Luthi into second and third respectively at the Spielberg circuit.
Spain’s world championship leader Joan Mir won the Moto3 Grand Prix ahead of German Philipp Oettl and compatriot Jorge Martin.
It was a stunning seventh GP success of the season for Honda’s Mir, who had started from the fourth row of the grid at the Spielberg circuit.