Austrian Moto2: Fernandez fends off Ogura for fourth win of 2021

A week after his promotion to MotoGP in 2022 with Tech 3 KTM was announced – a move he wasn’t thrilled about – Fernandez boosted his title hopes at the Red Bull Ring on Sunday with the fourth win of his rookie season after Gardner was a distant seventh.

Sam Lowes converted pole position into the holeshot from Fernandez, while a multi-rider collision erupted at Turn 1 instigated by American Racing rider Cameron Beaubier – who was hit with a double long-lap penalty.

Fernandez found his way into the lead at Turn 3 on the third lap, while Ogura quickly followed suit on the Marc VDS rider two tours later.

Both Fernandez and Ogura quickly put eight tenths between themselves and the chasing pack, while the gap between the leaders hovered around three tenths.

Lowes was dumped out of the podium places on lap six by his Marc VDS teammate Augusto Fernandez, but the latter could do nothing to close in on Ogura and Fernandez ahead of him.

Fernandez managed to get his lead up to half a second on lap 17, but Ogura responded in the closing stages and brought that disadvantage down again.

Despite Ogura’s best intentions, Fernandez continued to resist the pressure placed on him by his fellow Moto2 rookie, breaking open the gap to almost eight tenths of a second as they started the final lap.

Fernandez came under no threat through to the chequered flag, leading Ogura by 0.845s – the Honda Team Asia rider securing his maiden MotoGP podium in second.

Augusto Fernandez completed the podium in third ahead of Lowes – who was one of only a handful of riders to race with the harder rear tyre – and VR46 rider Celestino Vietti.

The VR46 rookie thought he was celebrating a season-best fifth, but was demoted one spot to sixth for exceeding track limits on the last lap, which promoted Honda Team Asia’s Somkiat Chantra to a career-best fifth after a last-corner clash between the pair.

Gardner’s seventh was the worst of his 2021 season so far, the Australian beating Aspar’s Aron Canet, the SAG Kalex of Tom Luthi and Styrian GP winner Marco Bezzecchi to round out the top 10.

Bezzecchi’s disappointing result means he slips further behind in the championship standings to 47 adrift of Gardner going to the British GP.

Race results:

Cla	#	Rider	Bike	Gap
1	25	Raúl Fernández	Kalex
2	79	Ai Ogura	Kalex	0.845
3	37	Augusto Fernandez	Kalex	2.747
4	22	Sam Lowes	Kalex	4.412
5	35	Somkiat Chantra	Kalex	8.850
6	13	Celestino Vietti Ramus	Kalex	8.782
7	87	Remy Gardner	Kalex	13.657
8	44	Arón Canet	Boscoscuro B-21	16.499
9	12	Thomas Luthi	Kalex	17.108
10	72	Marco Bezzecchi	Kalex	19.588
11	96	Jake Dixon	Kalex	21.283
12	21	Fabio Di Giannantonio	Kalex	21.703
13	14	Tony Arbolino	Kalex	21.866
14	97	Xavi Vierge	Kalex	27.146
15	40	Hector Garzo	Kalex	29.128
16	16	Joe Roberts	Kalex	33.058
17	64	Bo Bendsneyder	Kalex	38.235
18	55	Hafizh Syahrin	NTS	38.357
19	24	Simone Corsi	MV Agusta	38.643
20	6	Cameron Beaubier	Kalex	44.344
21	29	Taiga Hada	Kalex	46.490
22	11	Nicolo Bulega	Kalex	47.560
23	23	Marcel Schrotter	Kalex	1'05.584
24	62	Stefano Manzi	Kalex	1'09.436
	5	Yari Montella	Boscoscuro B-21
	42	Marcos Ramirez	Kalex
	70	Barry Baltus	NTS
	19	Lorenzo Dalla Porta	Kalex
	75	Albert Arenas	Boscoscuro B-21
	9	Jorge Navarro	Boscoscuro B-21
View full results