MotoGP: Marquez overcomes pressure from Aldeguer and Bezzecchi to secure his first win at Spielberg

Six-time MotoGP champion Marc Márquez overcame huge pressure from Fermin Aldeguer and Marco Bezzecchi to secure his first victory at the Red Bull Ring. F1Technical’s senior writer Balazs Szabo reports on MotoGP’s Spielberg round.

Starting from pole position, Aprilia factory rider Marco Bezzecchi held on to the lead at the start, whilst Francesco Bagnaia, who fluffed the start in Saturday’s Sprint race, had a perfect getaway off the line to move himself into second place.

However, his team-mate Marc Márquez was eager to improve his position, and did not hesitate for long as he passed Bagnaia into Turn 3. The Italian offered a counterattack down the Schönberg straight to take back P2. A lap later, the Spaniard made the move stick on the same spot, and Bagnaia was unable to fight back this time around.

On Lap 4, Alex Marquez took his Long Lap penalty that saw him drop to P11 behind Honda rider Johann Zarco. Despite his strong pace earlier this weekend, the Spaniard took a long time to make any progress from eleventh place.

At the front, Bezzecchi managed to have it under control, setting eye-catching lap times early on to build up a gap of around eight tenths from Márquez, while Bagnaia was slowly losing touch from the leading duo.

set the fastest lap of the Grand Prix on Lap 4 to hold Marc Marquez 0.6s behind him, while Pecco defended P3 from Acosta. That lead was being chipped away at by Marquez though and at the start of Lap 8, it was 0.2s between Bezzecchi and Marquez, with Pecco 1.1s behind in P3.

On Lap 14, reigning champion Jorge Martin lost control of his Aprilia at Turn 7, and his race ended with a serious crash. The Spaniard was taken to the track’s medical centre for a precautionary check, but fortunately he was declared fit and could walk back to Aprilia’s garage to complete his debrief.

After the 28-lap race passed its midway point, Bagnaia started to struggle to keep the chasing pack at bay. On Lap 18, Acosta put an aggressive move on the Italian at the Jochen Rindt corner to take over P3. The KTM rider’s move cost the Italian two places as Fermin Aldeguer followed Acosta through.

On Lap 19, Márquez had a great exit from Turn 3 and managed to overtake Bezzecchi at the end of the Schönberg straight. However, the Aprilia rider counterattacked at Turn 6 to rake the lead.

The next lap saw Márquez made another move stick into the chicane to snatch the race lead baton, and Bezzecchi was unable to fight back this time around.

In the meantime, Aldeguer was on a move, showing great pace in the dying stages of the race. The Spaniard overtook Acosta in the chicane with an ambitious move to move himself up into third place.

The Gresini Ducati rider quickly closed in on Bezzecchi, and with just five laps to go, he went by the Italian to hunt down Márquez. However, the six-time MotoGP champion managed to slightly raise his pace to fend off Aldeguer to win the 1000th MotoGP race, grabbing a 25-point haul for the first time at the Red Bull Ring.

Despite failing to win at Spielberg, Aldeguer was superb to record his best result in MotoGP – his second podium finish in his debut season. Although Bezzecchi was unable to convert his pole position into victory, the Spielberg round will be a weekend to remember as the Italian secured a back-to-back podium for the first time since 2023.

Although he was able to grab a second consecutive sprint podium finish on Saturday, Acosta had to settle for P4 at the Austrian Grand Prixl, but it was still a good result with his KTM that featured a raft of aerodynamic upgrades at the Red Bull Ring.

Tech 3 KTM rider Enea Bastianini finished fourth to record his best result of the season, while Joan Mir battled his way to a positive P6 for Honda. The former MotoGP champion was involved in a big fight with Brad Binder, who had to settle for P7.

Having looked on course to take a podium finish, Bagnaia was embroiled in some intense fights in the second half of the Spielberg race, and the two-time MotoGP champion crossed the finish line in a disappointing eighth place.

Trackhouse rider Raul Fernandez held off Alex Márquez for P9, with the latter unable to recover from his Long Lap penalty. Franco Morbidelli pocketed P11 ahead of Johann Zarco, Luca Marini, Ai Ogura, whilst Fabio Quartararo took the final point in a weekend to forget for the Iwata factory.

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