By Donovan Fourie | Guest Contributor | MotoGP Analyst
A Race That Raised More Questions Than Answers
The Austrian race, held at the scenic Red Bull Ring, created a good chunk of interest. It left more questions than answers. Marc Marquez won on his factory Ducati, as was expected. What wasn’t expected was who gave him a hard time, and he got a hard time.
Bezzecchi’s Incredible Turnaround
Marco Bezzecchi finished Friday practice in 18th place, 1.3 sec behind leading man, Marc Marquez. This news is hardly surprising – the Aprilia he’s riding thrives in fast, flowing corners at tracks like Silverstone. It is completely inept at places like the Red Bull Ring where six of the nine corners are stop/go first-gear hairpins. For an Aprilia, it sounds like hell.
On Friday evening, feeling somewhat despondent, he called his manager, nine-times champion Valentino Rossi, for some advice. The two sat until late in the evening going over every detail of the track and talking about what is required.
On Saturday morning, he topped the Q1 session earning him a place to gun for pole in Q2. It’s massively unusual for a rider having to go through Q1 to find a spot on the front row. Bezzecchi did one better – from 18th on Friday, he was on pole on Saturday.
In the main Sunday race, he got out front and stayed there for 19 laps, holding off Marquez. Even when the championship leader attempted an overtake, Bezzecchi passed him straight back on the brakes in the next corner. Eventually, Marquez used the Ducati’s ability to power out of corners to simply pull ahead of the Aprilia on one of Red Bull’s straights.
Aldeguer’s Stunning Rookie Charge
Marquez then stayed out front for the rest of the race, except it wasn’t all easy for him. Fermin Aldeguer is a MotoGP rookie riding a Ducati from last year in the Gresini Satellite squad. We are not sure what he ate before the race, but he was on fire.
On lap two, he was back in ninth place, going as far adrift as 4.1 seconds from the leader. From there, he systematically picked off everyone ahead of him and set fastest lap after fastest lap, until lap 23 when he passed Bezzecchi for second place, and closed in to within a second of Marquez. The championship leader then had to do some digging, upping his pace but even then Aldeguer stayed within a second.
Marquez won the race, but those were helluva good performances by Bezzecchi and Aldeguer on arguably less competitive machines.
KTM’s Home Circuit Highlights and Binder’s Incident
KTM looked good this weekend with all three riders (Maverick Vinales pulled out of the weekend having not recovered enough from injury) earning spots in the top 10 at the brand’s home circuit.
Acosta was the leading orange rider in fourth with Bastianini a couple of seconds back in fifth. Brad Binder took seventh, which is a good result but not really the whole story.
The South African was in fourth towards the beginning of the race and closing in on Acosta when the chasing Raul Fernandez did a manoeuvre that deserves a good number of harsh expletives, but we shall instead say that it was “desperate”. Going into the last corner on lap seven, he dove up the inside of Binder carrying far too much speed, hitting into the side of the KTM, breaking one of its aerodynamic wings off and sending it into the run-off area.
As Binder politely described it, “he sent me off to wave at the crowd”. After that, Binder found himself in ninth but managed to climb two spots during the rest of the race.
Mixed Fortunes for Honda and Yamaha
Joan Mir had a fantastic ride on the Honda, another bike that little suits this circuit, finishing sixth and six seconds ahead of the next Honda in 12th.
The Yamahas absolutely struggled, finishing in the last four places on track with top Yamaha man Fabio Quartararo 25 seconds behind the leader. The Yamahas really like flowing corners and short straights, everything Red Bull Ring is not.