Lorenzo sees off Marquez in Austria duel

Full MotoGP race results from Austria

Jorge Lorenzo has claimed his third victory of the season by defeating future team-mate Marc Marquez in another thriller in Austria to maintain Ducati’s dominance at the Red Bull Ring.

Having won both races since the return of the Spielberg race to the MotoGP calendar, Ducati’s familiar foe of world championship leader Marquez led for large portions of the Austrian race but couldn’t escape the hunting duo of Lorenzo and Andrea Dovizioso.

With Marquez losing a lead of over one second at the mid-way stage, Lorenzo fended off pressure from his Ducati team-mate to take the fight to the Repsol Honda rider in the closing 10 laps.

Lorenzo and Marquez, set to be team-mates at the factory Honda squad next year, traded overtakes on lap 18 while Dovizioso dropped off the front two suffering with a fading tyre life.

Lorenzo gave Marquez an opportunity to dive back ahead when he ran wide at the tight Turn 3 with three laps to go which set up an almighty tussle between the two Spaniards.

Lorenzo pounced back on the same lap into Turn 9, aggressively forcing Marquez wide, but the reigning world champion returned the favour on the penultimate lap with a block pass at Turn 3 to lead into the final lap showdown.

The Ducati rider used the extra top speed of the GP18 to charge up the inside into the first turn and despite a fightback from Marquez at the tight third corner Lorenzo kept his rival in check to hold on for victory.

Lorenzo’s third win continues Ducati’s victory run in Austria – with three different riders all taking victory across the last three years – with Marquez having to settle for second place for a consecutive Austrian Grand Prix.

In the end, Dovizioso took a distant third place having been just a spectator for the victory fight in the final lap.

Behind the front three, LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow completed a lonely but impressive race to take fourth place as top independent rider comfortably ahead of Pramac Ducati’s Danilo Petrucci.

After the self-confessed ‘crisis’ at Yamaha, Valentino Rossi clawed back from qualifying down in 14^th place to take sixth – one place better than his 2017 results in Austria – ahead of Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa and Suzuki’s Alex Rins.

Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Johann Zarco claimed a distant ninth narrowly ahead of Angel Nieto Ducati’s Alvaro Bautista who got the better of Avintia Ducati’s Tito Rabat.

After a familiar disastrous start, Maverick Vinales clawed his way up to 12^th place on the factory Yamaha having dropped outside of the points in the opening laps.

Andrea Iannone was pushed wide early on at Turn 3 to see him struggle to 13^th ahead of sole Red Bull KTM rider Bradley Smith as rookie LCR Honda’s Takaaki Nakagami rounded out the points places.

Fellow MotoGP rookie Hifazh Syahrin could only manage 16^th place for Tech3 but ahead of Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro, who faded badly as the race went on, while Pramac Ducati’s Jack Miller completed a frustrating race down in 18^th.

Franco Morbidelli (Marc VDS Honda), Scott Redding (Aprilia), Karel Abraham (Angel Nieto Ducat) and Thomas Luthi (Marc VDS Honda) rounded out the finishers in Austria with Xavier Simeon the only non-finisher crashing out early on for Avintia Ducati.