Moto2 Doha RACE: Sam Lowes doubles up in Doha

April 4, 2021 EMR Writer

Sam Lowes takes his second victory of the season as he eyes up the Moto2 title.

It has been a pretty spectacular start to the season for Sam Lowes who has taken two pole positions as well as two race victories in Doha, Qatar becoming the first British rider to win the first two races of the season in the intermediate class since Mike Hailwood in 1966.

The British rider narrowly missed out on the title last year but he knows he has what it takes this year to bring the title trophy home and is proving that on track, he will leave Doha with the full 50 points in the bag and a 10 point lead to Remy Gardner overall. Lowes led throughout the race with Remy hot on his tail, Remy even setting lap times faster than Lowes’ pole time yesterday. Unfortunately for Remy he had to settle for second place but knows there’s not a major hill to climb to battle Lowes for the title.

After seeing his teammate Pedro Acosta take the win in Moto3, a motivated and rapid Raul Fernandez took his first Moto2 podium in only his second race in the class, he was able to hang with the race leaders and follow them lap by lap increasing his knowledge throughout the race, unfortunately for Marco Bezzecchi he finished in a very lonely P4, riding 3.4 seconds behind Fernandez and 10.2 seconds faster than Ai Ogura in P5.

It was a marvellous battle between rookies and seasoned riders in the midfield with the rookie Ai Ogura coming out on top, he is another rider who has come into the class and majorly impressed proving his worth against much seasoned riders battling and beating 3 x winner Augusto Fernandez in P6 with another rookie in P7. Celestino Vietti burst into the Moto3 scene in 2018 and did not disappoint, fast forward to 2021 he is doing the same in Moto2 finishing in P7, another rider who was involved in the battle beating his fellow VR46 Riders Academy rider Stefano Manzi in P8 as Vierge placed in P9.

Last time podium finisher Fabio Di Giannantonio battled all race long with Tony Arbolino, yet ANOTHER rookie! These rookies are really putting the seasoned riders to the test this year and it is incredible to watch in the class.

It was a tough day for the American riders as Joe Roberts and Cameron Beaubier both suffered DNF’s as they pushed to for results today with Roberts mixing it up at the front end and Beaubier chasing a top 10 finish.

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