Marco Bezzecchi takes his second victory in Styria and first victory of the season

The conditions were tricky with rain from the early morning wetting the track, but after the running of the Moto 3 race, a dry line had emerged on the track, causing the riders to use the slick tyres.

The lights went out and it was Marco Bezzecchi who took the holeshot into turn one with Remy Gardner right behind him who attacked Marco into turn three but was on the damp part of the circuit so Raul Fernandez took second from his team-mate on the exit of the hairpin.

By the end of lap one, it was SKY Racing VR46’s Marco Bezzecchi who was in the lead pulling a small gap over the Red Bull KTM Ajo bikes. Remy saw this and made his move on Raul and took second as he set to stay with Bezzecchi was setting an early fast pace and Aron Canet was with the top three in fourth place.

Aron Canet entered into the podium positions as he made his move on Raul Fernandez into turn nine on the third lap of twenty-five.

Sam Lowes had managed to gain two places into fifth ahead of Ai Ogura and ahead of his team-mate Augusto Fernandez and Jake Dixon had managed to gain ten place to get himself up into 11th.

Marco Bezzecchi set the fastest lap of the race on lap four, but Remy came close the rear wheel of the Italian in turn three, the championship leader was looking to eye that corner up for a pass later in the race. Sam Lowes was then starting to close in on Raul Fernandez at the end of lap five.

Bezzecchi made a mistake into turn one, going a little hot into the corner causing him to have a poor drive out of the corner with Gardner and Canet going either side of the Italian with Canet taking the lead and Gardner remaining in second place and Bezzecchi down to third. Gardner then attacked Canet into turn nine to lead lap seven. Raul Fernandez made a mistake at turn nine, dropping the championship contender to seventh place as Lowes, Ogura and Augusto Fernandez were able to pass the Spaniard.

Jake Dixon had managed to get inside the top ten, showing his race pace was a lot better than his qualifying pace of yesterday and was also ahead of his team-mate Xavi Vierge.

Remy Gardner and Aron Canet were pushing the pace as they began to drop Bezzecchi and opened up an eighth tenth gap. Ai Ogura had managed to get back in-front of Sam Lowes and made his way towards Bezzecchi. Raul Fernandez then got a track limits warning, not the race the Spaniard who was just announced to be with Tech 3 KTM in 2022 would have wanted.

On lap 11, Ai Ogura set the fastest lap of the race and took three tenths out of Marco Bezzecchi, Augusto Fernandez had managed to make his way passed his team-mate Sam Lowes, trying to again be the best of the two Marc VDS riders. Also Raul Fernandez was beginning to come under pressure from Flexbox HP40’s Hector Garzo.

By the halfway stage, Remy Gardner had managed to extend a gap to seven tenths over Aron Canet who had been caught by Bezzecchi and Ogura with both riders looking keen to make their way passed into second and third place. As Bezzecchi made his move into turn one on lap fifteen to take second place and tried to close the gap on Remy Gardner as Ai Ogura then was given a warning for track limits.

There was a big train of riders from seventh to fifteenth with Raul Fernandez heading the train with Sam Lowes and Jake Dixon in tenth and eleventh positions and Marcel Schrotter made a hard move on Celestino Vietti for 12th place at turn four.

On lap 17 Ogura and Canet started to duel for third as the pair swapped places in turns one and three with Canet staying in third and gave Ogura the signal to tag onto the back of him as they tried to chase Bezzecchi who was now only three tenths off Gardner.

On lap 18 Hector Garzo crashed out of eighth place at turn four, he was the only rider to go with the softer front tyre and that might be the cause of the crash.

Onto lap 19 Bezzecchi overtook Remy into turn one but went wide into turn three and let Remy back through but Marco took the lead back into turn four, whilst this took place Ogura had managed to pass Canet and tried to catch the two leaders.

On lap 20 Aron Canet was given a track limits warning, but the big shock was that Remy Gardner made a mistake into turn four and ran on into the gravel and dropped to fifth place. But then on lap 21 after gaining on Bezzecchi, Ai Ogura was given a long lap penalty and Remy Gardner was also given a track limits warning. It was Marco Bezzecchi’s to lose at this point.

Ogura dropped from second to fifth after taking the long lap penalty but touch the green on the exit and meant that he would take a three second time penalty. Due to all of this, Augusto Fernandez was able to find himself on the podium after not really threatening for the podium all race.

With three laps to go it wasn’t over as Aron Canet took half a second out of Bezzecchi and was eyeing up his first win in Moto 2. With two laps to go there was a small gap between Bezzecchi and Canet with both riders having to be careful of track limits as they could swap positions as what happened in last years Styrian Grand Prix.

It was Marco Bezzecchi who won the Styrian Grand Prix, Aron Canet took his third second place of the season with Augusto Fernandez taking back-to-back podiums in third place. Remy Gardner equalled his worst finish of the season in fourth place, he’ll be frustrated with the fact he threw away a podium place with his team-mate down in seventh place and Ai Ogura was able to take the last spot inside the top five.

Celestino Vietti took sixth place from Raul Fernandez at turn nine on the final lap and personal best finish from the other SKY Racing VR46 rider. Somkiat Chantra finished in eighth ahead of Xavi Vierge and Marcel Schrotter in ninth and tenth places. Jake Dixon finished in 11th with Lorenzo Dalla Porta in 12th, Fabio Di Giannantonio in 13th, Sam Lowes dropping down to 14th and Albert Arenas taking the final championship point in 15th.

Remy Gardner extends his championship lead to 35 points over Raul Fernandez with Marco Bezzecchi now only nine points behind Fernandez in third place. Sam Lowes remains in fourth place 96 points from Gardner and Di Giannantonio in fifth place 121 points behind, just one point ahead of Canet in sixth.

Featured Image: MotoGP.com