Marco Bezzecchi
Valentino Rossi watched on as Marc Marquez extended his MotoGP winning streak at the Austrian Grand Prix on Saturday. Marquez came through from fourth on the grid to win the Sprint.
Including the Sprints, Marquez has now won 11 races on the bounce. He hasn’t been beaten since the British Grand Prix on 26 May.
Having stretched his lead over brother Alex Marquez to 123 points, the championship is a formality. And privately, this may be a source of anguish for Rossi.
Marquez will equal Rossi on seven premier-class titles, and also replace him as MotoGP’s oldest champion. Given the well-documented and lasting animosity between the two, this will be especially painful.
Dorna capture lasting tension between Marc Marquez and Valentino Rossi
Rossi only attends MotoGP races sporadically despite owning the VR46 team due to his own racing commitments. But he’s repeatedly been shown on the world feed coverage at the Austrian Grand Prix this weekend.
What’s more, Marco Bezzecchi thanked Rossi for his advice ahead of qualifying, where he took a surprise pole position. Bezzecchi fell behind the Marquez brothers at the start and ultimately finished fourth.
Marquez and Rossi have had no contact since the Italian retired from MotoGP. Their rivalry exploded in 2015, when ‘The Doctor’ accused his rival of aiding title rival Jorge Lorenzo, and they’ve never reconciled despite a plea from Davide Tardozzi.
Before the Sprint, Dorna’s cameras showed Marquez, sunglasses on, walking from the pit lane to the starting grid. He encountered Rossi, moving in the opposite direction, but the pair didn’t so much as acknowledge one another.
In what one fan called ‘the clip of the year’, the broadcasters captured the lasting tension between the two legends. Another said the shot was ‘evil’ in a good way, and there were calls to ‘raise this cameraman’s salary’.
“This cameraman is hired to my wedding, he’s always there at the right moment,” a separate X post read. Other comments included ‘absolute cinema’ and ‘who did this shot and how can we get them in the F1 paddock?’.
Marc Marquez’s Austrian Grand Prix crash was no surprise after one Friday comment
Francesco Bagnaia predicted that Marquez would lead the Sprint by turn one despite his qualifying error. That shows the psychological dominance he exerts over his rivals.
Rossi is watching his VR46 graduates, like Bagnaia and Bezzecchi, go head-to-head with Marquez, but none have proven that they’re the same calibre of talent.
- READ MORE: How Jorge Martin responded when asked if Marc Marquez is on the ‘same level’ as Valentino Rossi
In the end, Marquez had to wait until the second half of the race to take the spot, but there was an air of inevitability about the outcome. He’s halfway to his personal best of 10 straight Grand Prix wins, achieved back in 2014.
Marquez pinpointed turn two as his weak point on Friday, which may have been a hint that he’d take a risk there in qualifying. It was his undoing over a single lap as he slid into the gravel, but he fittingly slipped by his brother on the exit of the chicane to take maximum points when it truly mattered.
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