Tom Lüthi (CarXpert Interwetten) took another podium in the Austrian GP, coming home in third to follow up his stunning win at Brno in style.
After getting away well, the fight for the win was soon whittled down to three at the front: Lüthi vs EG 0,0 Marc VDS pairing Alex Marquez and Franco Morbidelli. With Morbidelli in the lead, Lüthi was pushing hard to pass Marquez for second and the two staged an almost race-long battle for the position – discovering some crossed wires in terms of pace when debriefing after!
Tom Lüthi, P3: “It was a very entertaining race for me, but a bit frustrating as well because I thought the gap between Alex and Franco was because Alex was on the limit and Franco could escape - so I was stressing a bit to overtake him because I thought I had better speed and could get back to Franco. But Alex was thinking the same, he was just waiting and had good speed - so that was a bit of a misunderstanding between us, tactics wise! But I was able to fight for the victory once again and the overall picture is what counts - and what’s important for the rest of the season.”
Tough racing up the front of the field... there's a championship battle on the line! #AustrianGP #Moto2 pic.twitter.com/pgATuIeuCF
— MotoGP™???????????? (@MotoGP) 13 August 2017
Monday was then back to work day for the Swiss veteran, as most of the intermediate class were out on track at Spielberg once again for a one day Official Test. Using his time wisely as he tries to hunt down the 26 point lead held by Morbidelli, Lüthi concentrated on fine tuning his setup from race day:
TL12: “It was quite an important day for us, with perfect weather out there and we have all the data from the weekend. We are still looking for some improvements. We had some things in the race, some issues but on a very high level, not big things, but it’s good to try. And I tried a new tyre from Dunlop, it felt very good with lots of grip. We weren’t quite ready for it with the setup but it was a good first impression.”