Ai Ogura (IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia) sandwiched between Sam Lowes and his teammate, Marc VDS Racing team-mate Augusto Fernandez, on the right. At the GP of Styria, it was interesting to see how many seats in the grandstands, like here in the background, remained free.

1st win of the season for Bezzecchi – Red Bull Ajo drivers badly beaten

Saturday had been a black day in MotoGP for the KTM MotoGP team, so hopes rested mainly on the smaller classes. The Red Bull Ajo Team, which has KTM in its name but competes with Kalex chassis, should do it in the middle class. But on the home route of the main sponsor, the successful team of the Finn Aki Ajo suffered a clear defeat. Up to the nineteenth of 26 laps, it looked like that at least Remy Gardner could get the coals out of the fire. But then the world championship leader made a mistake in the downhill section, which cost him the podium he believed to be safe. The Australian was able to prevent a fall, but then found himself in 5th position, after which he was able to make up one place to the finish. When he returned to the track, his team-mate Raul Fernandez was right behind him. However, the Spanish rookie lost one position to Celestino Vietti in the last lap on Turn 9. As a consolation for him, he was given a MotoGP contract with Tech 3 before the race for next season.

Remy Gardner in front of Aron Canet and the eventual winner Marco Bezzecchi, who was on top of the podium for the first time this season and thus moved significantly closer to the two top runners in the intermediate championship ranking.

The other winners and losers

When Gardner lost his second place due to his mistake, everything looked like a first podium for Ai Ogura, who was then on P2. But the Japanese got a track limit penalty shortly afterwards from the race management. Not enough of anger, like Simone Corsi, he even got into the green area when stepping on the additional loop, which promptly received a time penalty of 3 seconds like the Italian. But because he finished right behind Wayne Gardner’s son. That left him with fifth place, on which he had seen the chequered flag, but of course the podium was gone. In addition to the winner and drivers like Canet, Augusto Fernandez, Gardner, Ogura and Vietti, he could still be satisfied with his performance, even if he undoubtedly deserved the podium. The fact that there are many sceptics among fans, teams and drivers about the track limits should be little consolation for the brave samurai. Somkiat Chantra, Xavi Vierge and Marcel Schrötter, on the other hand, should have agreed with their top ten result.

The young man with the lion’s mane from the Sky Racing VR46 team of his Italian compatriot and mentor Valentino Rossi – Marco Bezzecchi inflicted a serious defeat on his two opponents in the title fight at Red Bull Ajo’s home race, of all places.

The clear losers in the first race in Austria
At least according to the expression on his face in the pits, Raul Fernandez saw himself as a loser, but he still scored important points and can do better on the second weekend. The same applies to all riders who did not see the checkered flag or who did not see the chequered flag or only from 16th place, such as Tom Lüthi, and, directly behind him, his successor at Liqui Moly Intact, Moto2 rookie Tony Arbolino. It was also a difficult weekend for Sam Lowes and the two US boys, Joe Roberts and Cameron Beaubier. The English World Cup fourth placed only two points in 14th place, which meant he suffered another setback in the title fight, while his compatriot Jake Dixon finally made it into the points again with eleventh place. That’s why he’s not one of the losers for the third time this year.

Xavi Vierge in front of his Petronas Sprinta Racing teammates Jake Dixon and Marcel Schrötter (Liqui Moly Intact GP) – three allegedly hot candidates for one of the two vacancies in the Petronas Yamaha SRT MotoGP Team. The front two are already driving for the Moto2 team, sponsored by the Malaysian Petrol group.

Moto2 Grand Prix of Styria in numbers

Intermediate result in the Moto2 World Championship

The schedule for the second Spielberg race

Unless otherwise mentioned, applies to all images (© MotoGP).