Raul Fernandez wins the Austrian Grand Prix and closes down the championship lead to Remy Gardner

It was Sam Lowes who managed to get the holeshot into turn one, something that the Brit hasn’t had in a while, Raul Fernandez was second with Ai Ogura in third. Remy Gardner had been pushed down the order into 11th position. Unfortunately, Stefano Manzi and Jorge Navarro went down at turn one, causing other riders to take avoiding action.

At the end of lap two, Sam Lowes continued to lead from Raul, Ai and team-mate Augusto Fernandez, Aron Canet and Marcel Schrotter were swapping places for fifth. Raul then made his attack on Lowes into turn three with Sam unable to get back in-front on the Spaniard into turn four.

On lap five, Ai Ogura replicated the move of Raul Fernandez to make his way passed Sam Lowes for second place, Sam was just starting to lose pace with the front two having chose the hard option rear tyre. Marco Bezzecchi had managed to get up to ninth from 16th and Remy Gardner was down in tenth.

On lap six it was deja vu for Sam Lowes as his team-mate Augusto Fernandez made the same turn three pass on the Brit as the Spaniard looked for a third consecutive podium finish.

A man on the move was Somkiat Chantra who was in sixth place and started to pressure Marcel Schrotter in fifth on lap seven. Remy Gardner was able to overtake Marco Bezzecchi at turn one after the Italian ran wide and lost drive out of the corner.

SKY Racing VR46’s rookie Celestino Vietti after his best qualifying in eighth was trying to achieve his best finish as he made his move on Aron Canet on lap eight and started to charge towards Chantra. Vietti was then given the sixth place as Marcel Schrotter unfortunately crashed at turn one on lap nine.

It then got even better for Vietti as he made his way passed Chantra at turn three enter inside the top five and looked to be on for his first top five finish.

Remy Gardner made his way passed Canet at turn nine on lap 14, but on lap 15 Canet made his move back at turn four then Remy once again made his move at turn nine and held seventh position.

Meanwhile for Jake Dixon, he was in 12th position behind Fabio Di Giannantonio with Tom Luthi and last weeks winner Marco Bezzecchi just in-front as the Brit tried to improve his 11th place finish from last week.

With three laps to go, it was a battle for the win between the two rookies of Raul Fernandez and Ai Ogura with only 0.3 seconds separating them. Augusto Fernandez was holding onto third with Sam Lowes falling back in fourth. Vietti and Chantra were still battling for fifth place.

It was Raul Fernandez who took the victory ahead of Ai Ogura in an impressive second place, with Augusto Fernandez taking a third consecutive podium in third place. Sam Lowes finished in fourth place and Celestino Vietti crossed the line in fifth place, but unfortunately went on the green in the third sector so was demoted to sixth, promoting Chantra to fifth. Remy Gardner took his worst finish of the year in seventh dropping his championship lead to 19 points. Aron Canet finished in eighth, Tom Luthi finished in ninth and last weeks winnner Marco Bezzecchi finished in tenth.

Petronas SRT’s Jake Dixon finished in 11th, with Fabio Di Giannantonio in 12th, Tony Arbolino in 13th and Xavi Vierge in 14th and Hector Garzo taking the final points paying position.

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