Raul Fernandez put on a calm display to hold off Ai Ogura to secure his fourth Moto2 win of the year in Austria to narrow team-mate Remy Gardner’s points lead.
Fernandez held station off the start as he nipped in behind pole-man Sam Lowes, though the KTM Ajo man showed his muscle as he passed the Brit for the leadership at Turn 3 only a few laps into the contest.
He then settled into a strong rhythm out in front as he stretched his lead over Lowes, his main victory threat soon switching from the Marc VDS pilot to Honda Team Asia’s Ogura, who continued to show the strong pedigree he proved last weekend at the Red Bull Ring.
Ogura never allowed Fernandez to pull out more than a seconds lead, the Japanese rider seemingly managing his tyres while trying to keep a consistent gap back to Augusto Fernandez behind, who had passed his team-mate for the final rostrum position soon after Ogura had gone through.
Things remained constant throughout the rest of the encounter as Fernandez soaked up the pressure from Ogura, the Honda junior rider closing in over the final half-a-dozen laps to just a few tenths-of-a-second behind as he looked to secure a first ever motorcycle grand prix success.
Fernandez ultimately kept control of the race though as Ogura looked to settle for second across the final couple of tours, the Spaniard taking the chequered flag 0.845s clear of Ogura who still managed to score his maiden Moto2 rostrum finish.
Augusto meanwhile completed the podium as he found himself unable to close onto the leading duo, Lowes coming home just under two seconds later as his late charge ultimately faded over the final few circulations.
Fifth went the way of VR46’s Celestino Vietti who managed to move forward from eighth on the grid throughout, Somkiat Chantra on the other Honda Team Asia machine crossing the line in sixth having pressured the young Italian until the very end.
Chantra though would ultimately grab fifth thanks to a track limits infringement for Vietti on the final lap, while Remy Gardner struggled to match the speed of the leaders en-route to a distant seventh ahead of Aspar’s Aron Canet.
Thomas Luthi enjoyed a strong outing to claim ninth for SAG Racing, while the top ten was completed by Styrian Moto2 Grand Prix winner Marco Bezzecchi, who struggled to match the performance he possessed just seven day prior.
Jake Dixon-who may be temporality stepping up to the premier class for his home race at Silverstone in two weeks time-passed Fabio Di Gianantonio for 11th late on, Petronas SRT team-mate Xavi Vierge recovering to 11th after starting 20th.
Fernandez’s win sees him edge to within 19 points of Gardner’s championship lead heading to Silverstone, with Bezzecchi having fallen back to 48 adrift of the Aussie.
