Moto2: Penalty Costs Martin as Bezzecchi Takes First Win

The clouds from the Moto3 race remained for the Moto2 Styrian Grand Prix, as Aron Canet started from his first pole position. 

The #44 was unable to translate that pole position into a holeshot, however, as Jorge Martin took the early lead from Canet. Behind them was Tetsuta Nagashima, and that was how it stayed for the first laps. 

Then Canet dropped out, pushing too hard into turn four and crashing out. The Spaniard’s leg got caught under the bike, and as a result he was taken to the medical center. 

Canet’s crash released Nagashima onto the back of Martin, although he was soon under pressure from Remy Gardner. 

Gardner, in turn, was coming under pressure from Marco Bezzecchi, the Italian having fought his way back into the top four after an early mistake, and was now setting fastest laps of the race. 

Gardner passed Nagashima with a tough move at turn three, and that allowed Martin to escape at the front, his lead growing to one second. One lap after the #45 lost second place, Bezzecchi took third position from him, and then set on after Gardner. 

Although the Australian suffered in a straight line compared to his rivals his strength in braking was unparalleled, and he proved a tough nut to crack for Bezzecchi. However, the Italian was able to make his way through on lap 15, and then set his sights on Martin. 

Although Gardner had not been able to make any impact on Martin whilst he was in second place, once Bezzecchi had passed him the Australian was able to get his hooks into the #72, and was able to benefit from the slipstream which aided his woeful straight line speed. 

It was a long battle in the last 10 laps, but Bezzecchi had managed to close Martin’s lead down to 0.2 seconds by the final lap, and he had brought Gardner, Nagashima and even Tom Luthi with him. 

However, despite the best efforts of the Italian, he was not able to be close enough to make a move on his old Moto3 rival, Martin, who was able to take his second consecutive victory in the Moto2 class. It was an important result for Martin, who proved his ability to hold his nerve whilst under pressure, as Marini in the Spanish Grand Prix, and as Bastianini in Andalusia and the Czech Republic. 

However, the race was not over at the chequered flag. Martin ran over the green at the end of the kerb on the exit of turn nine on the final lap, and the ‘Augusto Fernandez rule’ from Misano last year – where Fernandez went outside of track limits in turn 11 to set up a move on Fabio Di Giannantonio for the win but had not exceeded track limits three times in the race, so got away with it – meant he was demoted one position, to second place. It was a harsh penalty, since he gained no real advantage, but the Spaniard took it calmly. In his head, Martin is the winner, and in reality he probably should be on paper as well.

Marco Bezzecchi’s first Moto2 win was therefore bittersweet. The Italian is finally back to something approaching full fitness after his broken talus bone in the lockdown break, and he proved his potential to fight for race wins in this race, but taking a first victory by a penalty that, when he himself looks back at the incident which caused it, he will likely disagree with will not be the way he wanted to do so for the first time in the intermediate class. But it is what it is – Bezzecchi is a winner in Moto2 and Sky VR46 have won two races in one day for the first time in their history after Celestino Vietti’s triumph in the Moto3 race.

Remy Gardner was able to hold onto third place, thanks mostly to some incredible braking performance, but also his determination to hold onto Bezzecchi after the Italian passed him as well as the Italian’s slipstream, without which he would likely have been a sitting duck with a late charging Tetsuta Nagashima behind him. It was Gardner’s first podium of the season. 

Fourth place for Nagashima represents a return to form for the Japanese rider after suffering for speed and confidence since his high-side in practice for the Andalusian Grand Prix. Nagashima is just 19 points off the championship lead now, in fourth place, and could be back in the game if he can find some consistency over the next few races. 

It was a season-best fifth place for Tom Luthi, who for much of the race looked as though he would be facing pressure from behind from the likes of Luca Marini and Xavi Vierge, but a late charge from the Swiss kept him within reach of the podium battle – encouraging signs after a difficult start to the year.

Xavi Vierge had a tough race, coming back from a qualifying position of 19th, but was able to come through to finish sixth in the end, one place ahead of Luca Marini. The penalty for Martin means that despite his troubles, possibly down to graining with the soft front tyre in the cooler conditions, Marini’s championship lead actually extended in the Styrian Grand Prix, and he will go to Misano with an eight-point lead in the standings. 

By the end of the race, Marini was coming under pressure from Jake Dixon whose late race pace was impressive. The Briton finished a career-best eighth with what is surely his standout performance so far in the World Championship. Behind Dixon were Hector Garzo and Enea Bastianini, who completed the top 10, Bastianini fortunate with Marini’s struggles and Martin’s penalty that he did not fall too far back in the championship, or even drop a position, although he remains ahead of Martin on race wins alone. 

Marcel Schrotter, like Marini, could not repeat his podium performance of one week ago, and finished 11th, ahead of Joe Roberts, Nicolo Bulega, Stefano Manzi and Lorenzo Baldassarri who took the final point in 15th. 

Marcos Ramirez missed out on points by 0.3 seconds, finishing 16th ahead of Lorenzo Dalla Porta – who appears to have made a step with a season-best result of 17th – Fabio Di Giannantonio, Edgar Pons and Simone Corsi who completed the top 20. Kasma Daniel Kasmayudin was 21st, ahead of Alejandro Medina who replaced Hafizh Syahrin at Aspar, Andi Izdihar and Bo Bendsneyder who took two long lap penalties and finished last of the 24 finishers. 

Sam Lowes was black flagged before he crashed out. There was a major misjudgement from Lowes, which again exposed the problem with turn three although in slightly less worrying fashion than the MotoGP race last week. Lowes seemed to out-brake himself, and the victims of his mistake were Somkiat Chantra and Jorge Navarro. Lowes received the black flag, but almost simultaneously he crashed for a second time at turn four. Lowes could possibly be facing another penalty for Misano. 

Aside from the aforementioned Canet, Chantra and Navarro, only Augusto Fernandez and Dominique Aegerter retired. It seems as though all the riders involved in any incident were able to get away relatively unscathed.