Moto3: Bezzecchi wins to extend title lead, heroic Martin 3rd

Marco Bezzecchi extended his championship lead with a second career victory in the Austrian Grand Prix, leading every single lap to take victory for the Prustel GP KTM outfit. In 2nd place was Enea Bastianini who once again ghosted up into the podium places, having been as far down as 16th after lap two. 3rd place went to a heroic Jorge Martin, who exceeded everyone’s expectations to take a podium with his wrist injury. Albert Arenas and Lorenzo Dalla Porta completed the top five, with Jaume Masia being denied his first podium after being nudged off circuit on the last corner to take 6th.

Bezzecchi was the man to get the holeshot from pole, with Albert Arenas, Jorge Martin and Gabriel Rodrigo tucking in behind the Italian and the four creating an immediate gap to fifth in the opening lap. Jaume Masia and Lorenzo Dalla Porta then joined the fray after bridging the one second gap a few laps later, but a mistake from Dalla Porta dropped him back into the clutches of the second group.

Back at the front and it was Bezzecchi setting the consistently quick pace, with no one able to get close enough to make a move on the Italian, with Martin, Arenas and Masia swapping places behind. The series leader threatened to make the break in the latter stages, creating a small gap of 0.6 on two separate occasions, but the miraculous Martin was able to claw his title rival back in, the final two sectors an evidently obvious strong point for the Gresini Honda rider, setting us up for a classic final couple of laps.

Then from nowhere – like in Brno – Bastianini started closing them down, setting the fastest laps of the race in the latter stages. Bezzecchi was half a second clear at the front and with Arenas running wide at turn one, Bastianini then had Martin and Masia firmly in his sights. Martin was passed at turn six, then Masia ran slightly wide at the penultimate corner to allow Bastianini through, with Martin slicing his way up the inside of his fellow Spaniard to claim the final podium place on the final corner – Bezzecchi in the meantime claiming his second win of the season to extend his lead in the championship to 12 points.

“A very good race today for my second win of the season. The whole team did a great job this weekend; I’m glad to have such a great crew behind me. It was a long and exhausting race,” said the Italian, now with a good series lead going into the Silverstone round.

“We have worked a lot since Brno to improve my mental approach. Thanks to my team, to KTM and to the VR46 Academy. See you in Silverstone in two weeks, I’m looking forward to it.”

With Bezzecchi and Martin at the front of the championship and separated by 12 points, Fabio Di Giannantonio is next up, some 37 points behind Bezzecchi. Three points further back is Aron Canet whilst Enea Bastianini is one point behind the Spaniard in 5th.