A busy day at the Red Bull Ring with a red flag stopped the race, but Alex Marquez scores points to continue his top 15 run. Stefan Bradl’s participation in next week’s Styria GP is confirmed as Marc Marquez continues his recovery.
Weather forecasts proved wrong again when glorious sunshine fell on the Red Bull Ring at the fourth MotoGP race of the year. Both Repsol Honda Team RC213Vs shot off the line, Alex Marquez and Stefan Bradl immediately gained positions and joined the group battling for the top ten. However, a red flag for a dramatic fall at Turn 3 resulted in the race being stopped, restarted and driven over 20 laps.
With the restart, Alex made another strong start from 13th on the grid and immediately moved up into the top ten as the field rushed through the first corners. The fighting was fierce in the first few laps and the MotoGP rookie had to shuffle the order after his lightning start. But Alex’s consistency ensured that afterwards he stayed free of problems and benefited from the mistakes of others in order to get back to the points. The Moto2 World Champion had a close battle with podium-placed Bradley Smith on the final lap and lost a bit of his left aero after contact. Alex crossed the finish line in 14th but was promoted to 13th after the Brit received a penalty for exceeding route restrictions.
Like his team mate, Stefan Bradl made up several positions at both starts of the Austrian GP. Bradl stayed in the mix with the full-time riders and held his own for the first few laps before eventually falling back and losing contact with the group. Bradl took 17th place, a better one than in the preliminary round. Stefan Bradl will climb Repsol Honda Team RC213V for the third time at the Styrian Grand Prix next week instead of Marc Marquez.
Takaaki Nakagami was one of the biggest beneficiaries of the restart as he raced forward and finished sixth for another top ten result. Nakagami is also sixth in the championship, four points ahead of Binder in fourth place.
The MotoGP field will remain at the Red Bull Ring for the sixth round of the 2020 World Championship and the third of three races in a row on Sunday, August 23rd.