MotoGP 2020: Andrea Dovizioso wins Austrian Grand Prix

Andrea Dovizioso won an eventful Austrian MotoGP for Ducati just 24 hours after revealing he would leave the Italian team at the end of the season. Spain’s Joan Mir on a Suzuki robbed Ducati of a one-two by clinching the second spot from Australian Jack Miller with a single corner to spare. 

In a two way tangle on lap eight at the empty Spielberg circuit, Yamaha's Morbidelli and Zarco hit the deck at high speed. Zarco's Ducati carried on without him, cut a corner and narrowly missed the veteran Valentino Rossi, who was clearly shaken by the close shave and who went on to take fifth. The riderless bike exploded into pieces at a safety barrier scattering debris through the air as the race was red-flagged.

This was Ducati's fifth consecutive MotoGP success at Spielberg and their 50th in the elite division. The MotoGP standings continue to be led by Fabio Quartararo, Yamaha's satellite SRT team rider and winner of the coronavirus-curtailed season's first two races in Jerez. The Frenchman finished eighth in this fourth leg of the campaign.

 

The day's big loser was Maverick Vinales, who had started from pole on his Yamaha only to trail in 10th and lose his second position in the championship to Dovizioso. South African Brad Binder, who celebrated his breakthrough MotoGP win last weekend in Brno, took fourth for home team KTM. Defending champion Marc Marquez was missing for the third race in a row following surgery on a broken arm sustained in a crash in the season-opening Spanish Grand Prix.

Malaysia MotoGP 2019: Maverick Vinales storm to dominant victory

Spain Maverick Vinales stormed to a dominant victory in the Malaysian MotoGP as World Marc Marquez fought his way from near the back of the starting grid to finish second. Ducati rider Andrea Dovizioso came in third but there was a disappointment for French rookie Fabio Quartararo, who only managed a lackluster seventh place after starting from pole.

Vinales dominated at the Sepang circuit from the outset, quickly breaking through the pack and taking the lead from the early stages after starting second on the grid. The Monster Energy Yamaha rider steadily extended his lead over the rest of the pack and never looked threatened. Vinales had a lead of about two seconds over Marquez soon after the halfway mark of the 20-lap race, and he finished over three seconds in front.

It was a major boost for Vinales following last week's Australian MotoGP, where he crashed out after leading for much of the race -- and handed victory to compatriot Marquez. The 24-year-old's second victory of the season leaves him in third place in the overall standings, with one race remaining. Marquez, crowned world champion for the sixth time last month, had started in 11th place after a terrifying crash in qualifying which saw him thrown from his bike. But the Repsol Honda rider surged into second place after just a few laps and stayed there until the end of the race. He opened up a big gap with the rest of the pack, finishing two seconds ahead of Dovizioso of Italy.

There was however a tough fight for third place between Dovizioso, who won at Sepang in 2016 and 2017, and nine-time world champion Valentino Rossi. Rossi managed to push past Dovizioso on several occasions, only for the Ducati rider to snatch the lead back and finish the race just ahead of his compatriot. Quartararo had dominated all weekend going into the MotoGP, topping the timesheets in practice and smashing the lap record, before seizing his fifth pole position of the season. But the 20-year-old Petronas Yamaha rider appeared no match for his more experienced rivals in the main race, quickly falling back at the start of the race. The MotoGP in tropical Malaysia has often been disrupted by torrential downpours in previous years but the rain stayed away this year for the whole weekend.

Japanese MotoGP 2019: Marc Marquez wins 2019 season

MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez won the Japanese Grand Prix with a pole-to-flag ride as Honda secured the constructor’s title at their home Motegi Circuit. The 26-year-old Spaniard had already made sure of his sixth MotoGP championship, and fourth in a row, a race earlier in Thailand on Oct 6.

The constructors' title was Honda's 25th, coming as the company celebrates 60 years in motorcycle racing. French rider Fabio Quartararo finished second for the non-works Petronas Yamaha team, 0.870 behind, to be sure of the MotoGP 'rookie of the year' accolade, with Italian Andrea Dovizioso third for Ducati.

The podium was Quartararo's sixth top-three finish of the season, but the 20-year-old is still awaiting a first win in the top category. His first lap attempt to get ahead of Marquez lasted only three corners. Marquez then led every lap as he made sure of his 54th victory in the top class, pulling him level in the all-time record books with retired Australian Mick Doohan.

Quartararo came under pressure at the finish on fading tyres, with Dovizioso closing the gap but running out of time to make a move. The Italian could still celebrate his 100th podium finish. Marquez has an unbeatable 350 points to Dovizioso's 231, with three races remaining in Australia, Malaysia and on home soil in Valencia. Honda have 356 points to Ducati's 270.

Yamaha's Maverick Vinales was fourth with Britain's Cal Cruchlow seizing fifth at the line for LCR Honda from Quartararo's team mate Franco Morbidelli. Yamaha's Italian great Valentino Rossi crashed four laps from the end while in 11th place, and Marquez's triple world champion team mate Jorge Lorenzo finished only 17th and 40 seconds behind the winner.

Thailand MotoGP 2019: Marc Marquez clinches title

Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez has sealed the 2019 MotoGP championship title, after beating Petronas Yamaha rider Fabio Quartararo in a last lap battle in the Thailand Grand Prix. The Honda star needed to score at least two points more than Ducati's Andrea Dovizioso in the Thailand GP to secure the world title, his sixth premier-class title and eighth MotoGP title, with four races left in the season. Marquez is now just one premier class title away that of Valentino Rossi and two from Giacomo Agostini.

The Thailand GP started with Quartararo on pole position, his fourth this season, while Marquez qualified third on the grid, with Yamaha's Maverick Vinales in second place. Quartararo was quick off the line and maintained his lead while Marquez was quick to jump to second passing Vinales, but not before facing competition from the factory Yamaha rider on the opening lap. The rider though managed to retain his position on Turn 3 and then slip-streamed past Quartararo to take P1. However, a braking mistake soon after saw the Petronas rider regain the lead, while the Honda rider only managed to save himself from Vinales.

The top three riders ran close as the laps progressed and Marquez was hot on Quartararo's tail. The top riders though soon started to detach from the rest of the pack and Vinales was now three seconds off by the lead pair as the race entered Lap 11. Quartararo had built up pace by then and wasn't having Marquez have this one easy. The young rookie was over seven tenths in the following laps, only for Marquez to catch up as the race crossed Lap 13. It was a close battle between the riders as the Honda man-built pressure on the satellite rider as the laps progressed over the next 10 laps.

Coming in fifth was Alex Runs of Suzuki after battling it out with Dovizioso, while Petronas rider Franco Morbidelli showed impressive pace finishing sixth as defeated Suzuki's Joan Mir and Yamaha's Rossi for the position. The latter finished at P8 behind Mir, while Danilo Petrucci finished ninth on the second factory Ducati with LCR Honda's Takasaki Nakagami coming in tenth. Pramac Ducati rider Francesco Bagnaia of Pramac Ducati finished 11th, while teammate Jack Miller was forced to start the race in the pitlane and recovered to 14th. LCR Honda's Cal Crutchlow took P12, followed by Pol Espargaro of KTM at P13, followed by Pramac Ducati's Jack Miller at P24. Aprilia rider Andrea Iannone finished 15th taking the final point in the Thailand GP.

KTM's Miguel Oliveira finished in 16th place followed by Avintia Ducati's Tito Rabat. Honda's Jorge Lorenzo was placed 18th with Avintia's Karel Abraham in 19th place ahead of Tech3's Hafizh Syahrin. The Thailand GP had two retirements including Aleix Espargaro on the Aprilia and Mika Kallio on the KTM.