Ajo Motorsport’s Johann Zarco once again took the spoils, and was able to out-pace Estrella Galicia’s Franco Morbidelli to soar to the Moto2 victory, and extends his lead in the championship after bagging maximum points at the Red Bull Ring.
It was a dramatic final lap for the remaining podium spots between Morbidelli, Rins and Luthi. But title challenger Alex Rins made a move on the final corner to snatch the final rostrum spot from Luthi. It was also the best race finish this season for Franco Morbidelli, who in the end could not match the pace of the Frenchman and the Italian finished in a strong second, just ahead of challenging Rins. Zarco now has a 34 point advantage in the overall standings.
Initially it was Morbidelli who snatched the hole-shot, but was unable to pull ahead as he was being chased by Schrotter, pole-man Zarco and Luthi. But it was not the best of races for Brit, Sam Lowes. He crashed whilst in eleventh with 21 laps remaining at Red Bull Mobile, but he did manage to get back on his bike.
But he crashed for a second time in the same place, as the brake lever jammed itself into the fairing and locked his front break off, bringing a premature end to his race ambitions.
Elsewhere Morbidelli did lead, but only until there were nine laps remaining, as Zarco overtook the Italian going into the Remus hairpin. Luthi decided that he wanted to fight for the podium and at the highest point of the circuit passed Morbidelli going into turn four, with seven laps left to the Moto2 race.
But with the pair battling for second, it paved the way for Zarco to progress in front and a gap of 1.4 seconds emerged out on the Austrian track. Then the fight for the last podium spots turned into a three-way tie, but in the end in a dramatic final lap it was Morbidelli and Rins who made it into the top three.
The reigning Moto3 champion, Danny Kent gained momentum throughout the race and after not a great start did find that extra speed in the final laps to make it inside the points and ended the Moto2 race in twelfth, ahead of Pasini, Oliveira and Simon.
Lowes was not the only rider to crash out on the Red Bull Ring, Jonas Folger fell after only three laps at Rauch, but did manage to walk away from the incident and got back out on to his bike.
