Jorge Martin took victory at the Grand Prix of Styria having lead the race after overtaking pole-sitter Aron Canet at turn 1 on the first lap.
However, the victory was gifted to second-place finisher Marco Bezzecchi after Martin exceeded track limits during the race.
On the same lap Augusto Fernandez crashed at turn 10, putting a premature end to the Marc VDS rider’s race, while Aron Canet approached turn 4 with too much speed.
Trying to scrub it off, he braked hard but hung the lever for too long, causing the front of his Aspar bike to fold under and he low-sided into the gravel.
Three laps in, Sam Lowes suffered his first of two crashes trying to make an overtake into turn 3, but he approached the corner too quickly and took out the Honda Team Asia rider of Somkiat Chantra and Spaniard Jorge Navarro
Both Chantra and Navarro were taken to the medical centre for a check-up.
Despite being able to re-start his bike, Lowes was black-flagged by the race stewards for ‘irresponsible riding’, which caused the crash.
Lowes then crashed on lap 6 as he backed his Marc VDS bike into turn 4, ending the Brit’s race.
At the halfway-point, Marco Bezzecchi overtook Tetsuta Nagashima for 3rd place, pushing the Japanese rider out of a podium finish.
Further down the field, championship leader Luca Marini dropped to 7th after being overtaken by Petronas Sprinta Racing’s Xavi Vierge.
Tensions were high with 5 laps to go as Bezzecchi slowly closed in on Martin, shrinking the gap between the pair to half a second.
The last three laps saw Bezzecchi on the heels of Martin’s boots as he searched for a way past, but Martin was able to fend off his challenger to the flag.
Victory, however, was stripped from the Spaniard due to running wide and exceeding the track limits during the race, meaning that second-place finisher Marco Bezzecchi took his first ever Moto2 win.
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