Maiden victory for Fernandez

An overjoyed Raul Fernandez (above) surged to a maiden MotoGP victory in Australia yesterday in his 76th race while Alex Marquez finished fourth to shore up his bid to finish the season second in the world championship.

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On an overcast day at Phillip Island, the Aprilia-Trackhouse rider benefited from two long lap penalties served by a flying Marco Bezzecchi to take the chequered flag 1.418sec clear of Ducati’s Fabio Di Giannantonio.

Aprilia’s Bezzecchi, who won the 13-lap sprint on Saturday, came third, 2.410sec adrift, to fill out the podium.

KTM’s Pedro Acosta was fifth ahead of Luca Marini on a Honda and Yamaha’s Alex Rins, while Spanish rookie Fermin Aldeguer, who won the MotoGP in Indonesia a fortnight ago, finished 14th.