Marc Marquez took very important points with a fifth-place finish in today’s Austrian GP. At the line, he trailed his main rivals for the title chase, Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo, who ended third and fourth, respectively, behind the two Ducatisti who topped the podium. Dani Pedrosa was able to keep a good pace for the entire GP and recovered from 12th on the grid to seventh at the chequered flag.

Marc, who was nursing a bruised shoulder after suffering a heavy crash in yesterday’s FP3, got a good start and entered the first turn in third but ran wide and found himself in fifth at the end of the first lap. He closely trailed the front group for over half the race, controlling Maverick Viñales behind him, but after a couple of small mistakes, he progressively lost ground and wisely settled for a top-five position.

Dani entered the first corner in 10th and overtook Scott Redding for ninth before the end of the first lap. He then kept a good rhythm until the end of the race, not so far from the front riders. Along the way, he recovered several more positions and improved his feeling with the bike.

Heading to the next race in Brno in one week’s time, Marc leads the championship with 181 points, 43 over Lorenzo and 57 ahead of Rossi. Dani is fourth with 105 points, 33 behind the runner-up position in the standings.


Marc Marquez - 5th

“After how yesterday went, I’m happy with today’s race. My shoulder didn’t hurt at any time during the race, so no excuses there. I would have taken fifth position if it were offered to me before starting the race. I knew the Ducatis and Yamahas were fast, so this was the best possible outcome and it’s positive that we’ve only lost five points compared to Lorenzo. Given the difficulties we’ve had, it was clear that our objective was to think of the fight for the Championship. I started aggressively, as it was the only way of trying to fight with the front group, but after making a couple of mistakes I lost the slipstream and it was very difficult to recover from that.”

Dani Pedrosa - 7th

“We went better in the race compared to the practice sessions, as we were putting in similar times to the riders at the front. We had been a little farther away from them beforehand this weekend, but today we took a step forward and that’s a positive. Now we must carry on working to continue to progress at the next race, which will be next weekend in the Czech Republic.”

1   - IANNONE Andrea 29 ITA 25 Ducati Team Ducati 39'46.255
2   - DOVIZIOSO Andrea 4 ITA 20 Ducati Team Ducati 0.938
3   - LORENZO Jorge 99 SPA 16 Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 3.389
4   - ROSSI Valentino 46 ITA 13 Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Yamaha 3.815
5   - MARQUEZ Marc 93 SPA 11 Repsol Honda Team Honda 11.813
6   - VINALES Maverick 25 SPA 10 Team Suzuki Ecstar Suzuki 14.341
7   - PEDROSA Dani 26 SPA 9 Repsol Honda Team Honda 17.063
8   - REDDING Scott 45 GBR 8 Octo Pramac Racing Ducati 29.437
9   - SMITH Bradley 38 GBR 7 Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 29.785
10 - ESPARGARO Pol 44 SPA 6 Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 37.094
11 - PETRUCCI Danilo 9 ITA 5 Octo Pramac Racing Ducati 39.765
12 - PIRRO Michele 51 ITA 4 Ducati Team Ducati 39.766
13 - BAZ Loris 76 FRA 3 Avintia Racing Ducati 44.284
14 - RABAT Tito 53 SPA 2 Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS Honda 45.004
15 - CRUTCHLOW Cal 35 GBR 1 LCR Honda Honda 1'03.246
16 - BAUTISTA Alvaro 19 SPA 0 Aprilia Racing Team Gresini Aprilia 1'12.448
17 - HERNANDEZ Yonny 68 COL 0 Aspar MotoGP Team Ducati 1'14.517
18 - LAVERTY Eugene 50 IRE 0 Aspar MotoGP Team Ducati 1'36.510
19 - BRADL Stefan 6 GER 0 Aprilia Racing Team Gresini Aprilia 1 lap
20 - ESPARGARO Aleix 41 SPA 0 Team Suzuki Ecstar Suzuki 4 laps
21 - BARBERA Hector 8 SPA 0 Avintia Racing Ducati Disqualified