Moto2 Jerez RACE: Fabio Di Giannantonio takes emotional first victory
Fabio Di Giannantonio has taken his first Moto2 victory at last for the Gresini team.
It was an emotional day today for the Gresini squad as their rider Fabio Di Giannantonio has won his first Moto2 race after nearly doing so many times last year with the Speed Up team crashing out of the lead, as we all know Fausto Gresini tragically passed away earlier this year due to COVID-19 and the team has chosen to continue on racing in his honour with Fabio Di Giannantonio taking his name to the top step of the podium in Moto2, a great tribute to the man. His win was dominant leading from very early on in the race putting in solid laps to open a gap up of 3 seconds which was reduced down to 1.722 over the line due to celebrations.
Marco Bezzecchi arrives to the podium finally after four races, he’s been incredibly close this year even leading in Portimao but has struggled to maintain positions, the team has seemingly found something which works for the Italian with him taking his first podium of the year today in Jerez ahead of Sam Lowes who has recovered from a crash in Portugal to take third place closing up to Remy Gardner atop the standings.
His 100% podium record is gone but he remains on top of the Moto2 standings, Remy Gardner continues his strong form battling for the podium today with Lowes and his teammate Fernandez, unfortunately, he was unable to best Sam Lowes but remains firmly on top of the championship.
Rookie Raul Fernandez is another rider who is impressing much like his Moto3 teammate Pedro Acosta, Fernandez is making waves in the Moto2 class with his race win at Portimao in only his third race in the class. He looked very strong today and was in line for a podium but unfortunately faced various issues and couldn’t fight for the top spots eventually settling for P5 ahead of Xavi Vierge.
Another rookie making strides is Ai Ogura, the Japanese rider has come into the class and has been incredibly strong with a P5 in Doha and now a P7 in Jerez, surely the podium is close?
A rider desperate to complete some good races is Augusto Fernandez, the Spanish rider has been a shadow of his former self after moving to the Marc VDS squad from the Pons team after winning 3 races and taking 5 podiums in 2019 and has struggled to continue at this level due to a front tyre profile change in the Moto2 class. He confirmed at Portimao he is adapting to the tyre now and was battling for the podium today before a crash took him out of contention.
Full results –
