Moto2 Styria RACE: Marco Bezzecchi takes first victory of 2021
Marco Bezzecchi stormed to his first victory in 2021 following a stunning race.
Marco Bezzecchi has taken his first Moto2 victory of 2021 at the Red Bull Ring, the scene of his first Moto2 victory in the class here last year. He didn’t have it easy though being forced to battle against title leader Remy Gardner and Aron Canet throughout the race, holding off both his rivals to arrive in P1 taking the full swoop of 25 points.
Remy Gardner looked to be the race favourite early on instantly taking the lead before running off in turn three, this run off allowed Marco Bezzecchi to move to the front and lead the race for six laps before Remy and Canet both struck together forcing Bezzechi down to third place with Canet briefly leading the race making up a small gap, unfortunately for Canet he was quickly reeled back in by Gardner who re-took the lead and cleared off into the distance forcing Canet into a battle with Bezzecchi.
Bezzecchi would reign king today getting past Canet and locking himself into a battle with Gardner with Remy making an incredibly rare mistake and running off the track demoting him down the order, eventually finishing in a still very strong fourth place, from here it was Bezzecchi’s to lose, he worked incredibly hard throughout the race to win with Canet coming in a strong second place.
Augusto Fernandez rounded off the podium, his competitors struggled around him with Ogura failing to stay within the track limits being slapped with a long lap penalty which he failed to complete correctly going over the white line, gaining him a three-second penalty at the end of the race, still finishing in a career-best P5 with pace for a podium and maybe even a victory. The Japanese rider has been incredible all year long and deserved more.
Celestino Vietti had a stunning race, the Italian rookie came from P19 on the grid all the way up to an incredible P6, the rookie gaining confidence with his bike as he completes more and more races, behind him Raul Fernandez struggled to stay with the front riders running wide and losing plenty of places throughout the race, seemingly struggling with grip. He has recently been announced as a MotoGP rider and seems to not be the happiest bunny about the situation, could the move be playing mind games with him? Possibly.
In eighth place Somkiat Chantra took home a solid result ahead of Xavi Vierge then Marcel Schrotter in P10. Sam Lowes on the other hand was destined for a top 10 finished before a last lap disaster saw him fall all the way down to P14, scraping minimal points damaging his title fight even further.
Full results –