Moto2 Assen Race: Raul Fernandez recovers to dominate

Raul Fernandez recovered a poor start to take his third race win of 2021.

Moto2 pole man Raul Fernandez blasted his way through the Moto2 grid today after struggling in the opening two laps dropping all the way back to ninth place, Fernandez proved his calibre and how strong of a rider he is today as he battled his way back through the Moto2 field duelling with Ai Ogura for fifth place before moving forward and getting past his teammate Remy Gardner. Once he had arrived in the podium positions he knew he had the pace for more and disposed of both Marc VDS boys to take the race lead before clearing off into the distance. He was consistently putting in extremely competitive lap times setting a new lap record in the process, he has undoubtedly proven today that he is deserving of a MotoGP move despite his desire to remain in Moto2.

It was another Red Bull KTM Ajo 1-2 taking the tally to 4 overall 1-2 finishes in 2021 for the Ajo team who are dominating Moto2, at this point there are only two riders who are likely to win the championship and that is Remy Gardner and Raul Fernandez, but, this is racing and anything can happen! Gardner had a very strong race and recovered from fourth place all the way through to second, he was unable to get any higher up though due to the huge speed of his teammate, but Gardner was able to take nearly a second out of Fernandez’s lead in the latter laps.

Taking the final podium position was Augusto Fernandez, the Spaniard came from P7 on the grid and led the race at one stage, he was the last rider to win here in 2019 and has struggled hugely these last two seasons, thankfully a massive weight has been taken off his shoulders today as he took his first podium since 2019 ahead of his teammate Sam Lowes.

Marco Bezzecchi finished in fourth ahead of Ai Ogura who yet again finishes a very solid race in sixth place, the Moto2 rookie has been non-stop impressing and showing his abilities adapting to the Moto2 bike incredibly quickly, he ran has high as P4 during the race before losing some places, a very good race for the Japanese rider.

Another rider who had a strong race was Xavi Vierge, Vierge fell down to P11 mid-race before eventually coming home in P8 putting himself in contention for the Petronas Yamaha MotoGP seat. Celestino Vietti rounded off the top 10 to put 3 rookies in the top 10, he had a stunning race and was hugely overlooked today coming from P27 to finish in a very strong P10, fair play to that man!

Full results – 

Featured image – Red Bull KTM Ajo