Rory Skinner says his run to a new personal best Moto2 result of 18th in the Austrian Moto2 race feels somewhat ‘bittersweet’ after feeling a shot at scoring his first Grand Prix points went begging.

Arriving in Spielberg - where he made one of two Moto2 wild-card outings with American Racing last season - simply targeting the flag after bruising incidents at Mugello, which forced him to miss the next two events, and then again at Silverstone, Skinner enjoyed arguably his most competitive weekend of the season in the Styrian hills

Despite qualifying below his expectations in 24th having shown top twenty pace in practice, Skinner picked his way back up the order to take the flag in 18th place, representing an improvement on his previous best of 19th at COTA.

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It would leave the Scot satisfied with his efforts come the end of the weekend, even if he feels he had the pace get into the points for the first time too.

“I actually had a good weekend. I felt like I made a big step with my riding on Friday and Saturday, it was quite enjoyable to be somewhat competitive for once this year. We closed the gap to the front group, and even though the position doesn’t really reflect that, we were a lot closer.

“In the race, I felt like I had decent pace to be up there and competitive with a lot of them but I kind of got a bit spooked off the start, the last thing I wanted to do was pick up another injury, get wiped out and have my race cut short.

“It’s nice to get a race distance under my belt; it’s a PB result but it’s a bit bittersweet. It’s nice to have brought it home and get laps under my belt so we can move on from that in the future and hopefully continue in the way we did at the beginning of the weekend.”