Austria Moto2: Zarco extends championship lead with crushing win

While Zarco had a sluggish getaway, Franco Morbidelli led the field off the line with a good launch.

Morbidelli quickly built a safe advantage over Marc VDS teammate Alex Marquez, the latter soon falling behind Marcel Schrotter and then running wide at Remus, dropping to sixth.

Morbidelli managed to build a lead of 0.5s, until lap 10, when Schrotter and his pursuers Thomas Luthi and Zarco quickly made up ground on him.

However, Schrotter's only overtake was under yellow flags and the German had to give up the lead as a result.

Schrotter was then forced to defend from Zarco, and while he could only keep him at bay for two laps, Morbidelli stretched his advantage to over a second during that time.

Once second, Zarco rapidly closed in on Morbidelli and went past the Italian rider at the first corner. Zarco then pulled away, as Morbidelli was passed for second by Luthi a lap later.

Showing superior pace for the rest of the race, Zarco cruised to the finish in first with a winning margin of 3.058s.

Luthi couldn't shake off Morbidelli, and the Italian battled his way through on the last lap to take his career-best Moto2 result in second.

Luthi was also passed by Rins at the final turn of the race, the Spaniard starting the race from ninth.

Schrotter and Marquez settled for fifth and sixth respectively ahead of Takaaki Nakagami and Lorenzo Baldassari. Axel Pons and Dominique Aegerter made up the top 10.

Title contender Sam Lowes lost a couple of positions from seventh on the grid, and then slid off at Rindt, falling out of contention.

Despite managing to continue, the handlebar of his bike broke under braking a couple of laps later, causing the Briton to crash again and retire for good.

Following his fifth win of the season, Zarco's championship lead over Rins has been extended to 34 points.