Moto2 Emilia Romagna Race: Sam Lowes triumphs in Misano!
Sam Lowes took his first win since Qatar at Misano!
Sam Lowes took a heroic victory today at Misano to take his first podium since Jerez and his first win since the duo of season openers at Qatar! It’s been a tough season for Lowes this year who has been taking consistent P4 finishes but hasn’t been able to take that desired rostrum finish, today that ends in Misano with a victory after taking his sixth pole position of the year in a Marc VDS 1-2.
The race started with Aron Canet on fire taking the lead incredibly early on as he eyed up his first-ever victory in the intermediate class leading the field for the opening three laps of the race before Sam Lowes made his way through taking over the reins from the Boscoscuro rider, whilst this was going on the Fernandez’s were doing their own thing with Augusto completing his Long Lap Penalty and Raul making his way through the field after starting from P9 overall to be within the top three after just four laps.
Raul looked incredibly strong lap by lap making up some huge ground in the championship, even taking over the lead as Remy plugged away from P14 on the grid involving himself in controversy with Somkiat Chantra after colliding with the Thai rider and causing him to crash out resulting in a Long Lap Penalty. This penalty didn’t prove too be too much of an issue for the Australian who took it with ease retaining the P7 position ahead of Marco Bezzecchi.
Returning to the front of the field Raul Fernandez was able to make his way past Sam Lowes with blistering pace, clearing off at the front of the field looking like a clear winner with a huge advantage, the title swinging in his favour with a 10+ points lead to Remy Gardner, unfortunately for Raul this dream would very quickly come to an end following a monumental crash which seemingly came from nowhere baffling even Raul himself who couldn’t explain the crash, looking completely defeated after returning to the box knowing that Gardner would gain a huge points haul from the accident.
This left Sam Lowes and Aron Canet to battle it out for the race victory, both riders showing some serious pace with Lowes making some mistakes getting out of the saddle on multiple occasions, allowing Canet to stay close and even take the lead with eight laps to go, this lead wouldn’t last too long however as Lowes wasn’t going to let Canet take the glory from him, with four laps left Lowes retook the lead and never relinquished it taking victory in San Marino.
Augusto Fernandez further down the order was on fire making up some huge pace after ending lap two in P14 after his long lap to arrive in third place, eventually taking a strong P2 after Canet ran out of fuel out of the last corner!
Celestino Vietti has stunned all weekend long in the wet conditions and proved it wasn’t a fluke today in P4, he ran in the top positions all race long and the rookie looked completely unphased by this, a huge talent running around in the eye-catching special VR46 livery, he led Jorge Navarro in P5 and Stefano Manzi in P6.
Remy Gardner would eventually take P7 after a crash from Marco Bezzecchi gifted him some extra championship points to double his title lead from 9 to 18 points! Rounding out the top 10 were Fabio Di Giannantonio, Ai Ogura and Marcos Ramirez.
Full results –
Featured image – Marc VDS
