A NEW A NEW
VOLUME ISSUE AUGUST , P79
T
he Red Bull Ring jinx is
broken for Marc Marquez
(Ducati Lenovo Team), as
he secured maximum points for
the sixth consecutive time, ex
-
tending his lead in the MotoGP
Championship. His victory at the
Grand Prix of Austria on Sunday
was hard-earned, with Marco
Bezzecchi (Aprilia Racing), who
finished third, leading for much
of the race. Rookie Fermin
Aldeguer (BK8 Gresini Racing
MotoGP), who was second, also
applied pressure on Marquez
in the final stages. Despite this,
neither was able to prevent Mar
-
quez from winning MotoGP's
1000th race.
MotoGP Sprint
The headlines from the 13th
Sprint of the season very much
followed the pattern of what
had gone before: namely,
Marquez domination as well
as Francesco Bagnaia's
pronounced struggles.
Bezzecchi lit up qualifying
to take his first pole in Aprilia's
black colors, but disaster was
narrowly averted off the line as
Bagnaia (Lenovo Ducati) and
Aldeguer both spun up and went
left from third and sixth on the
grid, forcing many behind into
avoiding action. The Marquez
brothers were unaffected up
front as Alex (Gresini Ducati) led
Marc on lap one, with Bezzecchi,
Pedro Acosta (Red Bull KTM),
Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse
Aprilia) and Brad Binder (Red
Bull KTM) behind.
The two Ducatis edged clear
of their pursuers, and there
was the usual inevitability as
Marc hacked away at Alex's
five-tenths-of-a-second lead on
lap seven to effortlessly move
by to the lead on lap 10. From
there, he eased to a 1.1-second
win, his 12th Sprint victory of
the year, and the 11th time from
13 that the brothers have ended
Saturday in either first or second
this year.
Acosta showed full aggres
-
sion to pass Bezzecchi for third
on lap two but had little for the
PRETENDER?
