GARDNER EXTENDS MOTO2 LEAD

As the two KTM Ajo riders of Remy Gardner and Raul Fernandez stumbled, Marco Bezzecchi stood his ground and took his first Moto2 victory of the season at the Red Bull Ring in Austria.

Emotionally he also claimed the win for the VR46 squad on the weekend that team owner Valentino Rossi announced his retirement from the sport.

The front-running Ajo machines both had days to forget, Aussie Remy Gardner fought for the lead, but a late-race mistake meant that he finished off the podium for just the second time this season.

Gardner came home in fourth but crucially ahead of his closest rival, teammate Raul Fernandez.

Bezzecchi who won the Styrian Grand Prix last year did it once again taking a surprising victory from third on the grid.

With a blinding start the 22-year-old Italian led into Turn 1, however after the first handful of laps he fell to third, Bezzecchi was not fazed and stayed in the leading group.

At the halfway stage of the race Gardner had pulled out a small margin of 0.7s from Aron Canet, Bezzecchi and Ai Ogura who sat line astern.

It was at this moment that Bezzecchi elected to turn his pace up a notch, applying the pressure to Canet.

The Italian made the move stick on lap 15 into Turn 1, the very same lap that Ogura received a warning for abusing track limits.

Marco Bezzecchi took his first Moto2 win – Image: Motorsport Images

While Bezzecchi was catching the race leader, Ogura set about overtaking Canet and the two became locked in a fierce battle and as a result, fell to a second behind the leading duo.

It did not take long for Bezzecchi to catch up to the race-leading Australian and made light work of him, the VR46 rider breezed by Gardner into Turn 1 on lap 19.

Bezzecchi ran wide at Turn 3 allowing Gardner back into the lead, however retook the Aussie at Turn 4.

The following lap, trying to keep on the tail of Bezzecchi, Gardner made an unforced error at Turn 4, to late on the brakes he was forced to take a tour of the gravel and re-joined in fifth.

Ogura had overtaken Canet and now after Gardner’s mistake sat in second on course for his first career podium.

Surprisingly Agura began to chip into Bezzecchi’s lead, however before he could catch the Italian, he was dealt a long lap penalty for exceeding track limits five times.

This let Bezzecchi off the hook and allowed him to take his first win of the season, Canet came home in second ahead of the lonely Augusto Fernandez.

Gardner came home a disappointing fourth ahead of the penalised Ogura.

Gardner’s teammate Raul Fernandez struggled to keep up with the leading pack early on and a mistake at Turn 9 buried him down the order.

He sat sixth on the final lap, but was pipped by Celestino Vietti who started from 19th on the grid, Fernandez came home seventh.

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