That fourth place smashed Fernandez’s previous best result of tenth and he earned top RC16 honours by overtaking factory KTM star Jack Miller during his ri♓se from twelfth in the grid.

The reigning Moto2 champion, who had already surprised by pushing Fabio Quartararo out of Qualifying 2 on Saturday, spent thꩲe closing stages in a battle with Aprilia’s Aleix Espargaro, keeping the MotoGP race winner atไ bay by half-a-second.

“So happy. So happy,” smiled Fernandez, the only rookie on the 2023 grid. “Be🅷cause after qualifying, which was a good day, I crashed in the sprint. Then [in warm-up] I had another cr♛ash, so I lost a bit of confidence.

• 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Alex Marquez penalised꧙ for Binder, Za𒉰rco incident
• Maverick Vinales: "Emotions, adr🌃enaline… I was very upꦑset"
• Francesco Bagnaia “didn’t like the reaction” but “not angry with Maverick Vinales”

“I also took a risk wit⛄h the front tyre, as [in the sprint] it was a mistake to go to the medium. So I said, ‘OK, I’ll go soft and I try to manage it to the end, and if I struggle at the end, I ⛦will try to survive’.

“So I took the gamble, and I got my feelings back, managed to do a good start, aౠnd stay with the group through the race. I was just pushing, I 🦂was feeling good. I stayed there.

“I managed to do a good pace, and then on the last ꦫlap, Aleix passed me, so I had a goo𒁃d battle with him also.”

Explaꦅining how he managed to hold off Espargaro on the hard front tyre, Fernandez revealed:

“The front dropped and I think Aleix🐻 was with the hard, so he was coming f🥃ast.

“But because the drop of the soft comes in mid corner, so you can still brake hard. So I braked hard, and tried to close th🌟e lines.

“He💮 passed me on the brakes, but I was braking very hard, so he went a little b⛄it wide, and I passed him back.

“I tried to defend𝔉 my position, I won the battle, so everything was good! So happy.”

The timing of the result was also perfect, with Moto2 star Pedro Acosta r☂umoured to be seeking a ▨move to MotoGP with KTM next year.

Fernandez insisted it wasn’t a factor in his mind and made clear he has the hi📖ghest of goals:

“I'm happy, because it's a fourth in MotoGP, in the fifth race of the season. I'm focused on my job, and also I want more. I dꦿon't want to be fou😼rth. I'm here to win, so I'm focused on my own job, that's it.”

But the first target will ༺be to carry the Le Mans form over to future rounds.

“We cha🍬nged some ergo things. It's not that they brought me new pieces, it's jus🎃t I feel a little bit better riding the bike, and I think for the rest of the tracks it will also be good. So let's see.

‘A great achievement for a rookie’

Tech3 team manager Nicolas Goyon said: “What an emotional conclusion to the weekend. A super-good result from Augusto and we knew h♐e could make a good result here, but he’d suffered some crashes and it was going up-and-down.

“We made a reset after warm-up🍒 and made some little changes on the bike. We went for it, ౠand he had an amazing race to reach 4th, just 1.5 seconds from the podium which is a great achievement for a rookie. “We’re so happy.”

With Jack Miller suffering a late fall, Brad Binder was💜 the next best KTM rider, in sixthꦬ place.

Binde💛r took the flag seven-seconds behind Fernandez after enduring opening lap contact from Alex Marquez and a long lap pe꧑nalty.