When rain drops sཧuddenly intensified in the closing stages of S൩unday's Austrian MotoGP, Marc Marquez immediately muscled his way to the front of the leading group.

The Repsoꦑl Honda rider wasn't hoping to break away, but rather play Pied Piper.

Having alr🐼eady decided to pit for wet tyres at the end of the lap, the eight-time world champion knew that if his main rivals saw the race leader pulling in𝐆, they would probably all follow.

If the top group all made the same choice as Marquez, it would significantly 💫reduce the risk that the #93 had taken the wr♕ong decision. Even if wets proved slower, it would be the same situation for all the leaders and they would resume their previous battle with Marquez still in front.

Marquez duly looked over his shoulder as he pulled off the traওck and would have been pleased to๊ see a queue of bikes following him into pit lane... Except Brad Binder. The last of the six leaders, Binder didn't take the bait and made a race-winning decision to brave it out on slicks.

"I think we took a good decision to go in," Marquez said. "It was the safest decision a🅘nd also I tried to lead the race because normally when the first rider goes in, all the other🐷s follow.

"Just Brad stayed out and congrats to him because it's so difficult to keep that level and to finish the race on slick tyres in the wet conditions. But I think the other top guys took a good decision, to💝 go in and ꦗfinish on the rain tyres."

But Binder's slick gamble wasn't the o𒁏nly spanner in the works for Marquez.

Pushing to catch the South African at th𝄹e head of the 'wet' group he was first to hit heavy rain at Turn 1 on the penultimate lap.

"We did a good strategy, we were strong, when I went out with rain tyres I felt okay," Marquez said. "But it was so difficult to understand because in some corners it was full rain, some corners full dry and then when we arrived in the first corner there was heavy rain and the guy leading the🎃 group is the one that takes more risk. So when I crashed all the rest just went straight [and carried on]."

Remounting at the back of the field, Marquez eventually crossed the finish line in 15th, scant reward for his earlier heroics when he had surprised by taking the fighꦺt to the race favo🔯urites after switching to a soft rear tyre on the grid.

"I'm very happy today because I prefer to do a race like this than achieve a good result just by flag-to-flag because it's not a real level," Marquez said. "Today in🌄 the dry weꦗ show a good level and I was enjoying the race and I'm happy.

"From outside, it looks like 𒁃a gamble or 'they took a risk' [with the soft tyre]. But yesterday we tried in FP4 and the performance was not bad and with our experience this tyre is working well. With Michelin tyres sometimes you need to forget about soft, medium or hard. You need to just try to understand the feeling. And for our bike this year we are struggling a lot, a lot, with the rear grip."

The only rider on the soft rear suggested Marquez needed the rain to arrive sooner rather than later. But his consistent pace on the soft proved a p🌼leasant surprise.

"With the soft I knew we can at least ride well for 10-15 [out of 28] laps. But for some reasonꦿ, I don’t know why, at the end of the race I felt much stronger than in the first part of the race!

"Before the race I was p🦂raying to have some rain because it was the only chance, but during the race I was praying not to 🌳have any rain because I felt very strong.

"I was surprised. I knew before the race that maybe if🅰 the pace was '24.2-'24.1 I will struggle. But the pace was around 24-mid and in those lap times I felt comfortable and was even able to save the tyre.

"It was a surprise to b🐟e fast in the early laps on the soft but with 9-10 laps to go, I ove𓂃rtook Quartararo and then in one lap I caught Pecco. That was a great surprise on the bike, but then unfortunately the rain arrived and everything changed.

"It's good news today that we were able to ride fast, co🅘nsistent, but I already said to Honda 'not enough'. We need to keep working because it's true that I was there but I took a lot of risk.

"So if we w🦄ant to fight for the championship next year we need to be a litt🦄le bit faster, just improve in some points."

Marquez was the only Honda rider in the top 12 for much of the ra✱ce, with brother Alex eventually finishing as the top RC213V in ninth after Marc's late fall.

Francesco Bagnaia, second to Marquez when they made their pit stops, made a late charge to finish runner-up to Binder and needed just one more lap to pass the KTM rider. Jorge Martin and Joan Mir, also part of the earlier dry leading group, took third and fourth 💎on wets.