Martin robbed of Moto2 victory, Bezzecchi wins GP Styria

23 augustus 2020 – Sky VR46 driver Marco Bezzecchi has won the Grand Prix of Styria on Sunday. The Italian took the victory after Jorge Martin was credited with a track limits violation on the last lap. Martin therefore finished in second place. Bo Bendsneyder received a time penalty of no less than 29 seconds.

Martin had to pass his rival Aron Canet in qualifying, but in the race there was nothing to beat the former Moto3 champion. Canet crashed into Turn 4 on the second lap, Martin took the lead and initially drove away from teammate Tetsuta Nagashima, the winner of the opening race in Qatar. Behind it was a group with Marco Bezzecchi and Remy Gardner. Bezzecchi managed to work his way up to second place and chased Martin in the last part of the race.

The gap was a few tenths into the final lap, but Martin seemed to have a safe margin. He went out of the track at the end of the eighth corner, but was able to repel Bezzecchi’s attack when entering the last corner combination. Martin was the first to cross the finish line, but was then told in parc fermé that he had ridden his bike on the green part. As a result, the Spaniard lost his victory to Bezzecchi, who completed a very strong match.

Martin got stuck in second place and took up the sport. He did a golden business in the championship and is now in second place. Remy Gardner finished in a handsome third place on the 2019 version of the Kalex. The Australian took care of Nagashima, who left an unfortunate phase behind and took fourth place. Thomas Lüthi took his best result of the season and finished fifth before Xavi Vierge and championship leader Luca Marini. Jake Dixon made it to the top ten for the first time in his Moto2 career, finishing eighth ahead of Hector Garzo and Enea Bastianini.

Former MotoGP rider Sam Lowes was black-flagged after causing a severe crash on the third lap of the race. The Briton made a significant braking error and torpedoed Somkiat Chantra and Jorge Navarro from the race. Lowes got to his feet, but got a black flag. Even before he saw it, Lowers slumped again and his game was over.

Bo Bendsneyder’s race went pretty poorly. The Rotterdammer was not in the game for a moment on Sunday. He compensated for the lack of race pace by going over the track limits several times, which put him on a long lap penalty. He did not take it within the set number of laps, which resulted in a double long lap penalty. He was also unable to redeem those in time. As a result, he was given a 29-second time penalty, finishing stiff last. His teammate Dominique Aegerter retired in the twentieth round.

The Moto2 Championship continues in three weeks with the Grand Prix of San Marino.

–