Moto2 Qatar RACE: Sam Lowes wins the season opener in Qatar
Sam Lowes converts his pole position into victory in the race at Qatar.
Sam Lowes dominated the opening round of the season in Qatar to take his first victory of the 2021 season under the lights of Qatar, the British rider was pushed back to second position by Marco Bezzecchi in the opening 2 laps until Lowes was able to make a pass on the Italian which stuck for the rest of the race, clearing off in the distance and feeding Bezzecchi to the sharks as he dropped back to P4 overall which is where he finished the race.
It was an incredibly impressive race for many including Raul Fernandez who was running in podium contention in the opening laps of the race before fading to P5 overall by the chequered flag, he has proven he has what it takes in the class, so did Cameron Beaubier. The 5 x MotoAmerica champion started his race in P22 and fought his way through the field to finish in P11 beating many world champions including Thomas Luthi, Lorenzo Dalla Porta and Albert Arenas as his teammate Marcos Ramirez bravely attempted to race with his broken arm before pulling into the pits.
Remy Gardner made his debut with the Red Bull KTM Ajo team taking a podium in his first attempt, this was after he was swallowed by the field in the opening laps, fighting his way back to the front from P8 to take a podium in the Red Bull colours ahead of a hugely emotional Fabio Di Giannantonio. Di Giannantonio recently suffered the loss of his team manager Fausto Gresini who was the man who gave him his first chance to race in the World Championship in Moto3, eventually finishing as the 2018 Moto3 runner up with the Gresini team before their reunion in 2021. Diggia battled his hardest against Marco Bezzecchi giving his all to beat his fellow Italian by just 0.013 at the line with Bez taking P4 overall ahead of Raul Fernandez.
Joe Roberts was another rider who did fairly well in P6 ahead of Jake Dixon who battled extreme pain from his wrist injury which nearly ended his career, his doctors said he may never race again and that he needed 12 months to recover from his injury yet just 5 months later here he is in P7 overall in a Moto2 race, hats off to Dixon who put in a strong display of determination at Qatar.
Marcel Schrotter finished in P8 ahead of Bo Bendsneyder on his Kalex debut, the Dutchman stays in the Moto2 class after signing a last-minute deal with the SAG team to run a Kalex in the new Pertamina Mandalika SAG Team, he was able to impress instantly starting on the front row and took his second-best Moto2 result of P9 with more in his locker ahead of Jorge Navarro who rounds off the top 10 ahead of Beaubier.
P12 sits Celestino Vietti, the highly impressive Moto2 rider making his debut in the class after just 2 seasons in Moto3 where he lit the series on fire pushing the boundaries of what riders can do in the class with 2020 Moto3 runner up Arbolino missing out on points in P16 and 2020 Moto3 champion Albert Arenas in P21.
Full Results:
Featured image – Marc VDS
