diff --git a/R.spec b/R.spec
index 9037f0c..1b5652b 100644
--- a/R.spec
+++ b/R.spec
@@ -329,11 +329,15 @@ case "%{_target_cpu}" in
       ;;    
 esac
 
+%if 0%{?fedora} >= 21
 # With gcc 4.9, if we don't pass -ffat-lto-objects along with -flto, Matrix builds without the needed object code
 # ... and doesn't work at all as a result.
 export CFLAGS="%{optflags} -ffat-lto-objects"
 export CXXFLAGS="%{optflags} -ffat-lto-objects"
 export FCFLAGS="%{optflags} -ffat-lto-objects"
+%else
+export FCFLAGS="%{optflags}"
+%endif
 ( %configure \
 %if %{system_tre}
     --with-system-tre \