VNE Snipers man Romano Fenati produced a Moto3 masterclass to win his first World Championship race since Motegi 2017, as the Italian mastered the tricky conditions around the Red Bull Ring in Austria.

After having his pole position taken away for qualifying antics, Fenati still found himself starting from the outside of the front row in third place. Early morning rain left the track damp, however, as the race started a clearly defined dry line was on the track, with the track drying as the race went on.

Fenati enjoyed a good start and it wasn’t long before he found himself in a lead group of three, a couple of seconds clear of the chasing pack on just the third lap of the race. Fenati, along with Tony Arbolino and John McPhee worked together to establish a lead through the first half in the race, with both VNE Snipers men taking turns leading the race.

However, just after the halfway point in the race, Fenati pulled the plug on his team-mate and the Scot, putting two seconds into the pair in just four laps.

Once his lead was established, Fenati managed the gap at the front, and despite some late charges from Celestino Vietti and Jaume Masia, Fenati’s lead was never under threat, winning by 1.097 seconds.

The battle for the lesser two podium spots looked set with Arbolino and McPhee set to battle it out for second, however, with eight laps to go, a charge from Vietti and Masia left it a four rider battle with a lap and a half to go.

As Masia went to move under McPhee, the Spaniard lost the rear end of his KTM, highsiding out the race on the penultimate lap, leaving three to battle for two podium spots. On a red hot final lap, Arbolino held onto second place, with McPhee out-dragging Vietti out of the final corner to snatch third from the young Italian, leaving him in fourth.

Marcos Ramirez came out on top of a race-long battle with his team-mate and World Championship challenger Lorenzo Dalla Porta with the Leopard due in fifth and sixth places. Makar Yourchenko was seventh place, with Jakub Kornfiel, Nico Antonelli and Aron Canet rounding out the top ten.

All of this means that Dalla Porta is now one World Championship point ahead of Canet in the Moto3 World Championship standings, with the Italian on 155 points, 42 points ahead of Arbolino.