MotoGP Austrian GP: Marc Marquez outduels Marco Bezzecchi for victory

Marc Marquez continued his march towards the world title with yet another MotoGP grand prix victory in the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday.

The win represented another ‘double’ following Saturday’s sprint success and thus completed the factory Ducati rider’s sixth consecutive perfect racing weekend – a run stretching back to the Aragon Grand Prix in June.

Aprilia’s Marco Bezzecchi led much of the race after starting from pole position before Marquez pounced. The Italian then succumbed to charging Gresini Ducati rider Fermin Aldeguer, who took his best MotoGP result with second place.

Bezzecchi pulled off a fine start to claim the lead ahead of Francesco Bagnaia, who slayed a few of his sprint race demons with a great getaway.

Bagnaia also helped Bezzecchi pull out a small margin as he made life difficult for Marquez in third. But Marc made a move on his team-mate stick on the second lap, moving into a familiar, menacing second place.

As has become customary in 2025, Marc then hovered within a second of the lead and bided his time until two-thirds distance. He then struck on lap 19, passing Bezzecchi at the exit of Turn 3.

There was a flurry of resistance from the Aprilia, however, as Bezzecchi reclaimed the lead at Turn 6. But, almost inevitably, the defence was short-lived. On the next lap, Marc made a move stick on the way out of Turn 1 – and Bezzecchi’s hopes were broken.

Soon after that, ‘Bez’ had to start looking over his shoulder as Aldeguer had come rocketing up behind him. The rookie had gone backwards from sixth on the grid and fallen into the lower reaches of the top 10 early in the race, but then proceeded to make overtaking look easy as he picked off riders one by one.

The last of these was Bezzecchi, who succumbed at Turn 3 on lap 24 of 28. Aldeguer immediately got within a few tenths of Marquez, but a serious challenge was never realistic and Aldeguer made do with a second place that represented a welcome return to the kind of form seen early in the season.

Bezzecchi’s third place saw him edge a little closer to the men he is chasing in the championship, second-placed Alex Marquez and third-placed Bagnaia.

Alex Marquez, Gresini Racing

Photo by: Gold and Goose Photography / LAT Images / via Getty Images

Alex Marquez could only run with the leaders until lap four, when he took the long-lap penalty imposed on him for his incident with Joan Mir in the Czech Republic last time out. That dropped him all the way down to 13th – and he wasn’t able to produce the kind of charge his Gresini team-mate managed. Alex progressed only as far as 10th by the end of the race.

Bagnaia looked steady in third until half-distance, but the moment Pedro Acosta and Aldeguer bullied their way past him in the same move at Turn 9, his race began to get messy. When threatened – as he repeatedly was – the double world champion appeared to prefer running wide than getting involved in any wheel-to-wheel racing, ultimately finishing eighth.

KTM fell one short of a podium in its home grand prix, with Acosta taking fourth ahead of Tech 3 man Enea Bastianini.

Joan Mir brought some joy to Honda with sixth place, ahead of another KTM, the factory’s Brad Binder.

Raul Fernandez (Trackhouse Aprilia) split Bagnaia and Alex Marquez in ninth place.

World champion Jorge Martin struggled, and was on the fringes of the top 15 when he fell at Turn 7 on lap 14. Though the Spaniard was shaken and taken to the medical centre, he appeared to be unhurt.

Yamaha had a day to forget, filling the final four places. Fabio Quartararo was the only one of them to score a point with a grim 15th position.

Austrian Grand Prix results

1 - 2
Cla	Rider	#	Bike	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Retirement	Points
1	M. Marquez Ducati Team	93	Ducati	28	42'11.006				25
2	F. Aldeguer Gresini Racing	54	Ducati	28	+1.118 42'12.124	1.118			20
3	M. Bezzecchi Aprilia Racing Team	72	Aprilia	28	+3.426 42'14.432	2.308			16
4	P. Acosta Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	37	KTM	28	+6.864 42'17.870	3.438			13
5	E. Bastianini Tech 3	23	KTM	28	+8.731 42'19.737	1.867			11
6	J. Mir Honda HRC	36	Honda	28	+10.132 42'21.138	1.401			10
7	B. Binder Red Bull KTM Factory Racing	33	KTM	28	+10.476 42'21.482	0.344			9
8	F. Bagnaia Ducati Team	63	Ducati	28	+12.486 42'23.492	2.010			8
9	R. Fernández Trackhouse Racing Team	25	Aprilia	28	+15.472 42'26.478	2.986			7
10	A. Marquez Gresini Racing	73	Ducati	28	+15.537 42'26.543	0.065			6
View full results