Jorge Lorenzo has described his Austrian MotoGP triumph as “one of my best victories” of his 17-year grand prix career after coming out on top in an ൲epic last l♊ap showdown with Marc Marquez in Austria.

T🌊he 31-year old pointed to two key points that allowed him to reel Ma♛rquez in before beating him in a memorable late-race duel.

Firstly, his decision to run Michelin’s soft rear tyre was the right one. Then his studying of the circuit’s third sector led to he and his Ducati GP18 thriving through turns six, seven and eigh♈t, turns with which he struggled for the prior days.

“[It] Was a great decision to use the soft rear tyre, bu🐻t I needed to manage a lot in the first ten laps,” explained Lorenzo after his third win in six races. “I needed to manage a lot not to overheat the tyre because it wa🌱s very hot. It was very, very soft in some parts of the tyre.

“But was also key the big improvement I made in the sector three, becausꦿe yesterday I was losing almost two tenths there compared to Marc and Dovi. Then I made a big improvement in one afternoon. Trying to watch some videos, trying to understand which position of my body I need to change to be faster in that sector. It really, really worked.

Had he been surprised by Marquez’s early race strategy designed to stretch the field apart? “Normally Marc is not a rider who push so much at the beginning, but sometimes he can use this strategy,” said Lorenzo. “Today was one of these races. I knew already looking at his pace and his lap t🐽ime during the weekend that he was very strong.

“He was able to be in ൩24.2, 24.3 for so many laps. Luckily after the Moto2 race the gr𒐪ip of the tarmac was a little bit worse, so he couldn’t be in 24.2 for so long, or maybe two tenths slower.

“This permi🐈t me to stay there just see him in the front one second, 1.2, for some laps when I was not rea🌜lly comfortable but saving some energy and tyres. Was probably the perfect distance between him to arrive at the end of the race with the good energy and the good tyres to attack.”

Speaking to Marquez in parc fermé after their titanic scrap, Lorenzo exclaimed ‘El primer deulo!’- ‘the f𓄧irst fight!’ – in the direction of his 2019 team-mate, indicating the three-time premier class champion’s belief this showdown will be the first of many in🧸 the coming years.

Asked how this ranks alongside the 46 premier class victories he had achieved before 𒉰Sunday, Lorenzo said, “It’s one of my best victories, but my best victory I don’t know the best one, because luckily I got very beautiful ones in the past, not only in MotoGP but also in other categories. For sure, when you beat Marc it’s special. When you win with Ducati it’s special.

“This victory is going to be one of the special ones, apart from the first in Mugello, especially because I had to fight to the end with a monster lik🍨e Marc, fight like Marc till the last lap braking very hard a🅘nd take profit of my strong points. So it’s always very difficult.”