Factory Ducati MotoGP rider Andrea Dovizioso beat Marc Marquez in a final corner battle to maintain Ducati’s 100% record at the Red Bull Ring in Austria.

The Italian and Marquez rolled the years back to 2017 for a battle royale between the duo for a race which will live long in the memory. Starting from the very first lap, to the final corner of the race, the duo went hammer and tong at each other for the right to win the Austrian Grand Prix.

Marquez got the holeshot off the line and lead as the field went down to turn three for the first time, however, the pace of the GP19 saw Dovizioso pull alongside him. Marquez ran wide into turn three trying to outbreak the Italian, leaving the pair to run wide.

The run wide allowed Fabio Quartararo, Alex Rins and Jack Miller to both move through into first and second with the Frenchman leading the way, however, it wasn’t long before Dovizioso and Marquez started cutting through the field.

Quartararo’s lead lasted five laps, before Dovizioso and Marquez both moved past the satellite Yamaha man into the front, and the duo quickly started pulling away, putting anywhere between 0.3 to 0.5 seconds a lap into the Frenchman. Behind Quartararo Jack Miller crashed out, promoting Rossi into fourth place and on the tail of his Yamaha stablemate.

Back out front, Marquez took the lead from Dovizioso on lap in the run up to turn three, and Marquez sat just under half a second ahead of the Ducati man for nine laps until Dovizioso powered past Marquez at turn one with eight laps to go.

Both Dovizioso and Marquez sat and hoped the other would make a mistake, ticking off the laps, with the Spaniard pulling closer in the two left handers in the middle of the lap each time.

Marquez made the first move with three laps to go, sliding under Dovizioso at the second left hander at turn seven. Dovizioso sat behind Marquez for the next two laps and both laps attempted passes on the Spaniard into turn one, however ran wide both times, with the duo drag racing up to turn three both times.

Heading into the final lap, Marquez held Dovizioso through turns one and three, and appeared to have the race in the bag as he held his lead through the left headers, however, coming back to the stadium, Dovizioso lined Marquez up and heading into the final corner, dove up the inside of Marquez, block passing the Spaniard and holding it to the line to claim his fourteenth MotoGP career victory.

Marquez had to settle for second and whilst only losing five points to the Italian, it felt like it mattered so much more to both.

Behind the front two, Quartararo managed to hold off the pressures of both Rossi and Maverick Vinales, securing Yamaha’s first podium around the Austrian circuit.

Alex Rins was sixth on his Suzuki, with Pecco Bagnaia finishing top rookie, just holding off the extremely impressive Miguel Oliveira for seventh place. Danilo Petrucci and Franco Morbidelli rounded out the top ten.

Taka Nakgami was eleventh on his LCR Honda, with Johann Zarco, Stefan Bradl, Aleix Espargaro and Karel Abraham rounding out the point scorers.