in on his rear Michelin.
Behind, Aldeguer's route to-
ward the front was opening up.
First, Bastianini ran off track at
turn one and was susceptible to
the Spaniard's attack just after
rejoining. Alex took his long lap
starting on lap four, which saw
him rejoin in 13th. Fernandez
then barged Binder off track at
turn nine on lap seven, which
handed the Gresini rider just
enough space to squeeze by
both. And soon he was on the
back of Bagnaia and Acosta,
who were having their own
battle for third.
There were hints this contest
was swinging in Bezzecchi's
favor on lap 13 as his lead sud
-
denly jumped to nine-tenths of
a second. But Marc was simply
catching his breath and cool
-
ing his front tire before another
late assault. "When I saw that
concerns, a revised fairing aided
the RC16's turning. Acosta's
fourth was impressive in itself.
But Bastianini (Tech3 KTM) and
Binder's respective showings
pointed to the RC16 being at its
most competitive in some time.
The race start wasn't entirely
dissimilar from the previous
round at Brno. Bezzecchi jumped
into an early advantage with Marc
second thanks to a neat pass on
Bagnaia at turn three. Alex then
led Acosta and Bastianini, with
Fernandez and Binder demoting
Aldeguer to ninth.
Bezzecchi's plan was clear:
open a lead early on, stretch the
field apart and perhaps pres
-
sure Marc into a mistake. He
succeeded in two of those aims,
holding half a second gap at
the close of lap one and eight-
tenths by lap two. For the next
10, Marc would gradually close
QUARTARARO HAS
V4 TEST SET
Yamaha experienced a total
disaster in Austria, with the M1
ill-suited to the Red Bull Ring
and to the revised Michelin tire
allocation for this track. Fabio
Quartararo was the best of the
M1s in 11th. But he could take
some small crumbs of comfort
from the fact that he knows when
he'll first test the factory's new
V4 machine. "In the Misano test
[in September], I will test the V4.
So, it will be a nice point to see
what the potential of the new
bike is," he said. "But until I try
the bike, I don't want to [judge]
anything. And I know that it's
still slow—on the engine. But this
is a point where it's going to be
crucial for the future, to have not
only a bike that is fast, but also
fast on the straights."
Briefly...
VOLUME ISSUE AUGUST , P83
The Sunday GP was an absolute
horror show for the Yamaha factory,
with their four entries of Fabio
Quartararo, Alex Rins, Miquel Oliveira
and Jack Miller occupying the bottom
four positions in the race.
