Maiden MotoGP success for Raul Fernandez at Australian Grand Prix
Raul Fernandez achieved his first MotoGP Grand Prix victory after dominating the Liqui Moly Australian Grand Prix, marking a historic win for the 24-year-old Spaniard and the Trackhouse Aprilia team.
Pole-setter and winner of the previous day’s Tissot Sprint race, Marco Bezzecchi (Aprilia Racing), made an excellent start, leading into Turn 1 and opening a gap of over a second ahead of Fernandez before taking the first of two long lap penalties imposed for the crash in Indonesia involving World Champion Marc Marquez.
The Italian rejoined in third place and after his second long lap, was down to sixth before fighting back to finish third, passing Alex Marquez (BK8 Gresini Racing MotoGP) two laps from the finish.
Bezzecchi said: “I thought that fourth was the maximum. It’s super hard to overtake him. Then I saw with Alex (Marquez) that I was catching him. At least I tried.”
Fabio di Giannantonio (Pertamina Enduro VR46 Racing Team) had an impressive ride from tenth on the grid to finish second, claiming his first podium since the Italian round earlier in the season.
"To get a victory, I did not believe in it when I was on the grid,” said Fernandez. “The moment I started to believe it was possible was when I overtook Pedro (Acosta), and Marco (Bezzecchi) had his long lap.
"I started to close the gap to Acosta, and then I said, 'ok, maybe today is the day’. The last three, four laps, I had a big drop on the tyre and I just tried to survive. But the more difficult thing was that I made all the last lap crying in the helmet, because I never thought it was the day to get a victory.”
There was a home victory for Senna Agius (Liqui Moly Dynavolt Intact GP) as he dominated the Moto2 Grand Prix.
It was the Australian’s second win of the season, with Moto2 rookie David Alonso (CFMOTO Gaviota Aspar) finishing as the runner-up and Diogo Moreira (Italtrans Racing Team) third, reducing the points gap in the championship to two, with Manuel Gonzalez (Liqui Moly Dynavolt Intact GP) only managing seventh. British rider Jake Dixon (ELF Marc VDS Racing Team) finished fifth.
Jose Antonio Rueda (Red Bull KTM Ajo) secured his tenth Moto3 victory of the season, finishing 0.829 seconds ahead of Joel Kelso (LEVELUP - MTA), with rookie Alvaro Carpe on the second Red Bull KTM Ajo machine completing the podium just ahead of Joel Esteban and Maximo Quiles in the run to the line.
British riders Scott Ogden and Eddie O’Shea finished in14th and 16th places respectively.