Larry Lawrence | August 13, 2017
Photo by Gold & Goose
The track is simple, the weather was benign – a distant threat of a rider strike burned off by bright alpine sunshine. And the race, the second back at Austria’s fastest track of the year, was more than just a thriller.
It may even have been the best of the century … thanks to a superhuman last lap, last corner battle.
Marc Marquez threw everything he had at it. And he is a rider with plenty to throw.
Andrea Dovizioso (his defeat last year by then team-mate Iannone still fresh in his memory) took it, gave it back, and crossed the line less than two tenths ahead. They’d changed places twice in the last corner alone.
If that Turn Ten was a titanic struggle, it was merely the culmination of 28 laps of titanic struggle, some of it in terms of hand-to-hand combat, other parts tactical, to do with tyre preservation, and before that even tyre choice. It came down to the bitter end.
As Dovi said, celebrating his third win of the year: “The worst thing is to have Marquez behind you on the last lap.”
And as Marquez said, laughing with joy in spite of the defeat (as well he may, having increased his title lead): “The last corner was completely at the limit. But this is MotoGP. If I didn’t try, I would not have slept quietly tonight. And next time we’ll try the same again.”
Ducati seemed to have the upper hand from the start of the weekend. The Red Bull Ring comprises little more than three first gear corners, linked by variously swooping sections adding up to ten corners altogether. Only two of them are real left-handers. Ducati horsepower, tamed by their new box-kite wings, pays big dividends.
Yet there were two Repsol Hondas on the podium, at a race where once again the vagaries of the very variable Michelin control tyres led to a wider-than-usual set of choices, and for some riders the usual unexpected disappointment.
Only one rider, Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) chose the hard front, and only three the soft – the most notable being Johann Zarco (Monster Yamaha). The rear saw more variety, with three on the medium, eight on the soft (notably Dovi, Zarco and second factory Ducati rider Jorge Lorenzo). Both Movistar Yamaha riders Valentino Rossi and Maverick Vinales joined Honda team-mates Marquez and Dani Pedrosa and nine other riders on the hard rear.
As Dovi explained, though, calling the tyres hard or soft is somewhat deceptive, for the soft actually worked better than the hard in warmer conditions here, and vice versa. “There is maybe one step difference, but there are many different rubbers in the tyres and they work differently in different conditions. It is difficult and very important to understand this over every weekend.”
Marquez had taken pole for a third race in a row, from Dovi and Lorenzo. Vinales led row two from Danio Petrucci (Pramac Ducati) and Zarco, with Rossi leading row three.
Marquez got the jump, but Lorenzo grabbed the lead at the second slow corner, and was a second clear at the end of the lap. At this point, Dovi was third, then Rossi, who had bullied his way through ahead of Vinales, Pedrosa, Zarco and Iannone’s Suzuki.
With everyone saving not just tyres but also fuel, the early pace was not fast, but the action close and compelling.
Marquez had caught Lorenzo by lap six, but it was not until the 12th that he finally moved ahead, and in between Dovi had been second for several laps; and on the 11th the trio had briefly been three abreast.
Now both were past Lorenzo, while close behind Zarco and Pedrosa (now gaining pace) both took Rossi, who then ran wide at Turn One to let Vinales past as well.
By half distance, the front men were finally getting spread , Lorenzo dropping away in third, with Pedrosa leaning on him, and Zarco losing touch with the pair to come under threat from the factory bikes of Vinales and Rossi.
Dovi led over the line for the first time on lap 18, and he and Marquez were now exchanging blows. This gave Pedrosa, now ahead of Lorenzo, the chance to close right up, and with six laps to go the trio were right in each other’s wheel-tracks Dovi leading again.
Now the end-game. Pedrosa, blaming wheelspin, couldn’t keep up. Dovi was the stronger, Marc later admitted, but it was only by very little, and on the two successive left-handers the advantage went back to the Honda rider. “Maybe I could take three tenths.”
With the championship so close, unlike last year, this was not the time to settle for second. “You need every point.” So he kept trying.
It brought out the best in Dovizioso, so easily under-rated for playing for percentages more than fighting. Not today … but it was still a matter of calculation.
“Marc always in the last lap will try something, but I didn’t expect in the last corner, because there is no braking. But I heard him open the throttle early in the second-last corner, so I left the door open so I could exit faster, because otherwise he would hit me.”
That’s exactly how it worked. Marc actually did nose ahead as he cut inside, but then he ran wide on the exit, sliding wildly on the paint as Dovi moved ahead again for a memorable win. He raised his left fist as he passed. “It was instinctive,” he explained. “Because that is not a corner to overtake.”
The race was not only a duel, though that was what claimed most attention. Pedrosa was a strong and valuable third from eighth on the grid, overcoming problems of a difficult weekend, and less than three seconds away.
Another four seconds down, Lorenzo managed to defeat Zarco by half a second, revealing afterwards that he was all but out of fuel. Zarco had claimed a new record on the sixth lap; and held off Vinales by two tenths. Rossi had dropped more than a second away by the finish.
“I was fast at the beginning, but when I lost rear grip I couldn’t fight any more,” Rossi said, blaming elusive setting problems on the 2017 Yamaha.
Alvaro Bautista (Pull&Bear Ducati) came through to take eighth from a strong Loris Baz (Avintia Ducati). Even more impressive was Red Bull KTM test rider Mika Kallio, barely a tenth behind in tenth, the marque’s second top ten in two races.
Iannone had closed at the end in 11th; Scott Redding (Pramac Ducati) came through to 12th. Aleix Espargaro (Aprilia), an impressive Karel Abraham was 14th; Crutchlow a disappointed 15th, his hard front-tyre gamble having played him foul.
Rins, Barbera, Smith, Rabat and Lowes completed the finishers; KTM’s Pol Espargaro was the first of several retirements, a start-line collision having broken off his rear brake lever. Jonas Folger (Monster Yamaha) also pitted with puzzling brake problems; then also Petrucci (Pramac Ducati) in response to an oil-pump warning light.
Jack Miller (VDS Honda) was the only rider to crash, out of a position in the points.
Marquez eked out another two points in his title lead over new second-placer Dovizioso, 174 to 158. Vinales dropped to third on 150, and Rossi (141) is coming under threat from Pedrosa (139).
Moto2 Race – 25 Laps, 107.95 km
Mattia Pasini was on pole for a second race in a row from the VDS Kalex riders Franco Morbidelli and Alex Marquez, with title challenger Thomas Luthi (CarXpert Kalex) on the second row.
But it was Morbidelli in front off the line, and he would resist constant pressure to stay there to the finish.
Luthi started strongly; and was second by the end of lap one, from Pasini’s Italtrans Kalex; but Marquez consigned the Italian to fourth two laps later, and he would play no further part in the fight up front.
There were just the three in it, and it was fierce. For a while it seemed that Marquez, up to second on lap four, was protecting his team-mate as he and Luthi swapped places and paint repeatedly – until he started to attack Morbidelli.
Only in the final laps did the race-long leader manage to get some clear air, with Marquez also narrowly outdistancing Luthi.
The battle for fourth saw more variety.
Pasini had dropped away slightly before half distance; at the same time rookie Pecco Bagnaia was following closely. The big movement came from Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM), who had finished lap one seventh. By the tenth he had caught and passed Bagnaia, and now he closed on Pasini, ahead of him as well on lap 15.
Oliveira set one fastest lap after another as he slashed away at a two-second gap, and by the 21st he had tagged on to the front three to join the podium battle.
He didn’t finish the next lap, thrown off in a vicious high-side from which he was lucky to be able to limp away.
By now, Bagnaia had got the better of Pasini, taking fourth just over half a second ahead.
Some five seconds away, Takaaki Nakagami (Team Asia Kalex) had come through from 13th on the grid to take sixth from second Red Bull KTM rider Brad Binder at half distance. The Moto3 champion and class rookie was still but a couple of tenths behind over the line.
Another rookie, Jorge Navarro (Federal Oil Kalex) finally got the better of Dominique Aegerter (Kiefer Kalex) after a long battle. Hafizh Syahrin (Petronas Kalex) completed the top ten.
Corsi, Nagashima, Axel Pons and brother Edgar all got ahead of Remy Gardner, who took the last point.
Marquez finally claimed fastest lap on the 22nd.
A massive crash at the first corner involved nine riders and eliminated all but two of them. Twelfth-placed Nagashima was won; and Iker Lecuona in last. But Simeon, Marini, Cortese, Baldassarri, Vierge, Locatelli and Quartararo were all out.
Morbidelli opened his points lead over Luthi again to 26, with 207 to 181. Then Marquez (153), Oliveira (133) and Bagnaia (100).
Moto3 Race – 23 laps, 99.314 km
The first race threw up the same old winner, and a brand-new hero.
Victory, seventh of the year, went to the almost immaculate runaway title leader Joan Mir (Leopard Honda); and it was in proper runaway style, once he’d got to the front.
The new hero was first-timer Jaume Masia, a 16-year-old Spaniard riding the Platinum Bay KTM in place of the injured Darren Binder.
Masia not only led a huge pursuit pack, holding second on laps 16 and 17, but by then had already set fastest lap, a new record.
Masia eventually finished ninth after one little mistake, still in the thick of a pack of highly experienced Moto3 riders, with second to 13th covered by only just over two seconds.
Gabriel Rodrigo (RBA KTM) had been on pole for a second straight race; Mir started from tenth, but made short work of the rest, taking the lead on lap six. The pack stayed close, but after half distance he started to ease away, the gap more than a second on lap 14, and stretching at one point to four.
It was a brawl for second, with one loser John McPhee (BTT Honda), who had been with the front men until he crashed out on lap 15.
Enea Bastianini (EG Honda) had led the pursuit early on, but a tiny slip dropped him out of the top ten, and with the contest so close it was all he could do to get back into it.
By the end Philipp Oettl (Schedl KTM) took second, but third-placed Jorge Martin (Del Conca Honda) was hugely impressive, in his first race back after severe ankle injuries before the summer break. Still on crutches, Martin had only completed six consecutive laps before the race.
Livio Loi (Leopard Honda) was a year’s best fourth, from Aron Canet (EG Honda), Fabio Di Giannantonio (Del Conca Honda) and Rodrigo; with Norrodin, Masia and Bastianini completing the top ten.
Mir’s title lead is now a yawning 64 points, 215 to Romano Fenati (an outpaced 13th today) on 151. Canet has 137, then Martin 105, Di Giannantonio 95 and McPhee 93, in an all-Honda top six.
NEROGIARDINI MOTORRAD GRAND PRIX VON ÖSTERREICH
MotoGP Race Classification 2017
Spielberg, Sunday, August 13, 2017
1 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA Ducati Team Ducati 182.6 39’43.323
2 93 Marc MARQUEZ SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 182.6 +0.176
3 26 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 182.4 +2.661
4 99 Jorge LORENZO SPA Ducati Team Ducati 182.1 +6.663
5 5 Johann ZARCO FRA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 182.0 +7.262
6 25 Maverick VIÑALES SPA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 182.0 +7.447
7 46 Valentino ROSSI ITA Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 181.9 +8.995
8 19 Alvaro BAUTISTA SPA Pull&Bear Aspar Team Ducati 181.5 +14.515
9 76 Loris BAZ FRA Reale Avintia Racing Ducati 181.1 +19.620
10 36 Mika KALLIO FIN Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM 181.1 +19.766
11 29 Andrea IANNONE ITA Team SUZUKI ECSTAR Suzuki 181.0 +20.101
12 45 Scott REDDING GBR OCTO Pramac Racing Ducati 180.6 +25.523
13 41 Aleix ESPARGARO SPA Aprilia Racing Team Gresini Aprilia 180.6 +26.700
14 17 Karel ABRAHAM CZE Pull&Bear Aspar Team Ducati 180.5 +27.321
15 35 Cal CRUTCHLOW GBR LCR Honda Honda 180.4 +28.096
16 42 Alex RINS SPA Team SUZUKI ECSTAR Suzuki 180.1 +32.912
17 8 Hector BARBERA SPA Reale Avintia Racing Ducati 180.0 +34.112
18 38 Bradley SMITH GBR Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM 179.8 +36.423
19 53 Tito RABAT SPA EG 0,0 Marc VDS Honda 179.4 +42.404
20 22 Sam LOWES GBR Aprilia Racing Team Gresini Aprilia 178.6 +52.492
Not Classified
43 Jack MILLER AUS EG 0,0 Marc VDS Honda 180.6 9 Laps
9 Danilo PETRUCCI ITA OCTO Pramac Racing Ducati 175.1 22 Laps
94 Jonas FOLGER GER Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 160.1 25 Laps
44 Pol ESPARGARO SPA Red Bull KTM Factory Racing KTM 142.0 26 Laps