At a time when it was needed most, Iker Lecuona secured his best ever MotoGP result after survivingꦛ the final few laps in the wet on dry tyres. 

Lecuona, who has been rumoured with making a switch💞 to Yamaha’s independent team for 2022 - his only viable option for remaining in MotoGP - has done little to hurt his chances of staying in the premier class after claiming P6 in thꦰe AustrianGP. 

Lecuona came through on slick tyres to make a last lap overtake on Aleix Espargaro, which looked to be good enough for second, however, Francesco Bagnaia and Jorge Martin on wet tyres were able to♉ nick that position at turns♏ nine and ten. 

Mir also followed the two Ducati riders through, as did Luca Marini who was on sl♔icks just like Lecuona after the Tech 3 KTM rider ran🐽 wide at turn nine. 

But even so, P6 is the Spaniard’s🤪 best result since joining MotoGP in 2020. Lecuona called the𝔍 last two laps ‘impossible to ride’ as you could not ‘open the throttle’. 

Lecuona said: “The last two laps it w💫as impossible to ride with the slicks. We go wide and we cannot open the throttle because we were spinning a lot on the straight also. We need to close early and stop the bike. 

“That💎 was a crazy race. Just I need to wait to stay on the bike but in the last two corners I lose the podium. It’s like this. Finalꦬly I was P6 with this condition so I’m very happy.”

Like Lecuona, team-mate Petrucci also stayed out on slicks but was unable to produce a simila🌄r result after suffering with rear spinning and using too much fuel. 

Petrucci added: "One of the most crazy races for sure. It was very, very difficult. For me the most difficult part was the first part of the race in tꦜhe dry. 

"I was spinning a lot with the tyre, I used a lot of fuel and I had to switch to the lo✤west power map, so yeah, I was toꦯo far to fight. 

"Then I didn’t switch the bike and instead tr💎ied to take a gamble. It worked because at least I took some☂ points, but yeah, it was too far."