The second of the EG 0,0 Marc VDS riders, Sam Lowes, then crashed out too in a nasty incident at Turn 3. The Brit got it horribly wrong on the brakes and wiped out the innocent Somkiat Chantra (Idemitsu Honda Team Asia) and Jorge Navarro (EG0+ Speed Up) without any warning. Lowes rejoined but was handed a black flag for his error, however, his race came to an end with a second crash instead of pulling out of the race due to his disqualification.

15 laps were left in the Red Bull Ring when Gardner edged his way past former title leader Tetsuta Nagashima (Red Bull KTM Ajo) for second place with Bezzecchi right on Nagashima’s tail too. The Japanese rider was demoted back to fourth moments later when Bezzecchi got the job done for third into Turn 4.

Five further laps ticked by before Bezzecchi was then able to draft his way past Gardner on the run up the hill towards Turn 3 but Gardner was imperious on the brakes, coming from a postcode further back to somehow get back under the Italian. However, the Aussie’s lunge hampered his drive out of Turn 3 and Bezzecchi took the place back before then tapping the rear of his Kalex to indicate he felt he had the pace to chase down the race leader.