Austrian GP 2024, Race: Vietti returns to victory | FP

Last year Celestine Vietti obtained his last success in Moto2 right at the Austrian Grand Prix, on that Red Bull Ring circuit particularly loved by the rider from Ciriè, who today took his first victory of the season. A real triumph for the 22 year old, at his second consecutive podium after the 3rd place at Silverstone. A golden opportunity wasted, however, for Sergio Garcia: with the great opportunity to extend his lead in the general classification over Ogura and Roberts, the Spaniard had to deal with a track limits penaltyfinishing in 14th place behind the American and without extending his lead over his direct opponents.

Race report

The most hard-fought phase of Celestino Vietti’s race was actually the start, with a nice duel with Aron Canet for the first position that led the two riders to end up wide at the exit of turn 1. However, already during the second lap, the Red Bull KTM Ajo team rider regained the lead by overtaking the Spaniard, with Lopez also unleashed, so much so that he moved up to second position. Joe Roberts, on the other hand, did badly, going from 11th to 15th. While Vietti attempted to distance himself from his pursuers, generating a good gap, the same did not happen to the championship leader Garcia, who was in clear difficulty. In fact, on the sixth lap, the Iberian rider lost two positions, slipping to 6th behind Dixon and Arbolino. In the meantime, Vietti was flying, but the biggest risk came on the 10th lap, thanks to a mistake at the entrance to turn 3. A mistake that allowed Lopez and Canet to recover ground, which was lost again six laps later due to an unsuccessful attempt by Canet to overtake his compatriot. The most sensational episode for the developments of the world championship standings, however, came five laps from the end: Garcia, increasingly struggling to defend sixth position, was penalized with a long lap for exceeding track limits. After serving the penalty, the Spaniard was relegated to 14th position, even behind Roberts, who was 9th at the finish line. In this way, Garcia is still the championship leader, but with a great opportunity to extend his lead over Ai Ogura (absent due to injury) and Roberts thrown away, with the two drivers respectively 20 and 32 points behind the Spaniard. The battle for the podium finally came to a head on the 23rd and final lap, with Dixon managing to complete the attack on Canet, thus conquering third position behind Lopez. For Vietti, this is the first victory of the season, as well as the first obtained since the last edition of the Austrian GP.

Moto2 – Austrian GP 2024: arrival order (top-15)