#AustrianGP Championship: Dovizioso breaks Márquez's momentum

Arriving on the route of the Red Bull Ring, it was a steamroller-looking Marc Márquez who took possession of the place. After the lesson in Brno, a week ago, would the reigning World Champion and provisional leader once again knock out his opponents in Styria? That was without counting on Dovi and his Ducati.

Before taking up his Austrian quarters, the Honda official had just won two victories, which had not happened to him since last season with the Aragón and Japan series. He had appeared on the podium during the last four meetings; i.e. his longest series since his Top 3 in Valencia 2015 and the four others at the start of the 2016 season.

He had also won 41 pole positions in 82 participations since his arrival in MotoGP. The Catalan actually dominated qualifying one time out of two. This percentage drops to 23,5% for Jorge Lorenzo, 18,1% for Valentino Rossi and 15,7% for Dani Pedrosa. A statistic that he further improved by bringing his total number of peak positions to 70.

In short, a momentum, a dynamic that seemed difficult to resist. But in terms of resilience, you can count on Andrea Dovizioso. Whitened under the yoke of the development of the red motorcycle, DesmoDovi is not the type to let go. Her performance at the Red Bull Ring showed it and the Ducati official was the one against whom she was furious Márquez broke his teeth.

Here is the teammate of a Lorenzo for the fourth time, second in the championship, 16 points behind Márquez. Behind, it is Yamaha which may have regrets since Casa Particular in Viñales loses ten points since Brno to find himself third at 24 lengths while Red can start to worry with its 33 units in passive. And all the more so since Pedrosa glues it back to two points. The Spaniard 35 points behind his leader Márquez.

The top 5 of the championship is therefore held by only 35 points, unheard of since the points system was introduced in 1993. Johann zarco is sixth, first among beginners and privateers, ahead of a Lorenzo at 20 points passing Folger who dropped out in Austria.

Special mention is given to Mika Kallio who took a good tenth place on the KTM, only 19.766 seconds behind the winner. The smallest gap for a representative of the Austrian firm dates back to last week in Brno with Pol Espargaro and it was 30.754 seconds. Not bad, especially since if, in 2016, the average speed of the race had reached 182,4 km/h, it was 182,6 this year. This is the highest figure recorded since Hockenheim 1994. Mick doohan had turned there with an average of 203,8 km/h.

Next stop, Great Britain and Silverstone, in two weeks.

MotoGP Championship ranking after Austria (11/18):

Pos	Pile	Motorcycle	Country	The point system
1	Marc Márquez	Honda	SPA	174
2	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	ITA	158
3	Maverick VIÑALES	Yamaha	SPA	150
4	Valentino ROSSI	Yamaha	ITA	141
5	Dani PEDROSA	Honda	SPA	139
6	johann zarco	Yamaha	FRA	99
7	Jorge Lorenzo	Ducati	SPA	79
8	Jonas Folger	Yamaha	GER	77
9	Cal Crutchlow	Honda	GBR	76
10	Danilo PETRUCCI	Ducati	ITA	75
11	Alvaro BAUTISTA	Ducati	SPA	52
12	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia	SPA	43
13	Jack Miller	Honda	AUS	43
14	Loris BAZ	Ducati	FRA	38
15	Scott REDDING	Ducati	GBR	37
16	Andrea Iannone	Suzuki	ITA	33
17	Karel ABRAHAM	Ducati	CZE	25
18	Tito RABAT	Honda	SPA	23
19	Pol Espargaró	KTM	SPA	21
20	Hector BARBERA	Ducati	SPA	21
21	Alex Rins	Suzuki	SPA	12
22	Bradley SMITH	KTM	GBR	8
23	Michael PIRRO	Ducati	ITA	7
24	Mika Kallio	KTM	END	6
25	Sam LOWES	Aprilia	GBR	2
26	Sylvain GUINTOLI	Suzuki	FRA	1
27	Takuya TSUDA	Suzuki	JPN