Spielberg | Red Bull Ring – Marc Márquez came as the winner of the MotoGP race in Brno to the motorcycle Grand Prix of Austria, to celebrate his first victory at Red Bull ring. After the pole position in qualifying, he had however been barely beaten in the race in a rousing duel by the Ducati factory rider Andrea Dovizioso…
After my visit of the press briefing in the hallowed halls of the Ducati team, I rushed on Friday afternoon, almost running, to the press conference by Marc Márquez in the HRC hospitality. Due to the very tight schedule on a race weekend the journalist’s dates for the individual teams are very close. Arriving at the base of the Honda Racing Corporation, the TV interview with Marc was already ongoing on the upper floor.
Already on the opposite side the media colleagues of the writers guild were waiting for the Honda called ’Media Scrum’. Before it started, the latest news were exchanged with each other from the race weekend. After the TV interviews, multiple MotoGP world champion and at the moment probably most talented driver of motorcycle sport Marc Márquez came together with his communication manager Héctor Martín over to us. The media conversation was held first in English and then in Spanish. Marc answered very sympathetic and patiently all our questions.
On Saturday the day of qualifying has come for Marc and his comrades. After the Free Practice 4, the MotoGP competed in the match for the best starting positions. Just before 3 pm it was clear that the Mozart of MotoGP with a virtuosic ride had secured his 70th pole position of his career; a good basement been had created for the first victory in Spielberg on Sunday. The Grand Prix of Austria, by the way, is the only race in which Marc in the current race calendar has still not won. With a good distance of one and a half and four tenths of a second, the two riders of the Ducati factory team Andrea Dovizioso and Jorge Lorenzo enqueuer behind him on the positions 2 and 3.
In the next qualifying press conference in the late afternoon, the drivers gave detailed information over the events. The media rush for the top riders was huge. After the official part and on the way out, a journalist colleague asked Marc for an autograph. This is usually not common at a press conference. As I stood there directly, I immediately used the opportunity to ask the extremely charismatic and always good-humored superstar, too. Answering my question to Marc “Autograph?”, it resulted with a “No, selfie!” and the following selfie with both of us. To my great delight, as I am besides my great journalistic interest also a huge fan of that exceptional driver.
Sunday – Race Day. In front of more than 90,000 spectators, Marc Márquez and Andrea Dovizioso demonstrated a show of superlatives at the top. Rousing fights for positions and overtakings of the two superstars tore viewers repeatedly of the seats. The last curve Marc dared into the all decisive attack on the leader ’DesmoDovi’. Being very close to Andrea, but pushed outwards too far by the maneuver, he had been beaten by the Ducati factory rider at the end by a close-run. Thus Ducati had been still ahead in Spielberg’ MotoGP, which was also celebrated adequately afterwards.
With again a number of over 200,000 spectators on the three days of the race weekend and a unique atmosphere, the motorcycle Grand Prix of Austria had been a flagship project in the motorsport scene again this year.
Text and photos: Armin Hoyer – arminonbike.com
