Raul Fernandez Wins at Misano and takes his sixth win of the season

It was very overcast as the riders lined up on the grip, the Moto 2 riders didn’t have a lot of dry track time this weekend so it was a bit unknown which riders would be the strongest.

The lights went out and Raul Fernandez led into turn one with Sam Lowes behind him in second and Marco Bezzecchi on his special SKY WiFi VR46 livery in third, but he ran wide into turn four allowing Aron Canet to take third with Xavi Vierge in fifth and Remy Gardner in sixth. Sam Lowes and Fernandez duelled at turns eight, nine and ten with the Brit coming out on top.

Xavi Vierge made his move on Bezzecchi at turn two with Remy Gardner following suit at turn eight, but Marco fought back at turn ten. Raul Fernandez was falling back into the clutches of Canet but he was also keeping Sam honest. Simone Corsi crashed out of his home race at turn four on lap three.

Gardner retook Bezzecchi at turn ten and was looking to try and catch the front four who were beginning to get away. On lap four Arin Canet made his way passed Raul Fernandez for second place at the Caro hairpin as the Spaniard looked to try and close in on ELF Marc VDS’s Sam Lowes.

Remy Gardner was starting to get onto the back of Xavi Vierge and was looking to try to find his way through on the Petronas Sprinta Racing rider and Remy made his move at turn four and was now on the charge for the podium to catch his team-mate and championship rival Raul Fernandez.

On lap eight Canet was right on the back of Lowes, Lowes ran wide into turn 13 and then again into turn 14 and Canet inherited the lead. Raul Fernandez then attacked Lowes into turn one and with that little battle, Remy Gardner was now closing up on the leading trio.

Something strange was happening with Sam Lowes as he went wide again into turn 13 so there could have been a front tyre issue and he falling into the clutches of Gardner. Worse for Lowes he was given a track limits warning and he’d only completed nine laps of the race.

On lap 12, the front four had gotten away from Xavi Vierge in fifth, Marco Bezzecchi saw this and overtook the Spaniard at turn 14 and would try to close down the gap, but it would be a big ask for Italian rider.

On lap fifteen Raul Fernandez took the lead at turn one, going up the inside of Aron Canet and looked to try and break the group, but by the end of the lap Canet was still behind him. Championship leader Remy Gardner made his move on Sam Lowes at turn two taking the final podium position with nine laps to go.

On lap eighteen Raul Fernandez set the fastest lap of the race and was pushing to keep the lead and close in on Gardner’s championship lead. Then on lap nineteen another fastest lap for Raul and personal bests for the rest of the top four.

On lap 21 Raul Fernandez was given a track limits warning so he would have to be careful in the last five laps of the race. Also Aron Canet was still on the back of him and Remy Gardner in third was the fastest rider on the track. Raul had managed to pull a 0.5 second gap over Canet and Gardner was looking to find his way into second place.

With two laps to go Raul led the race, Canet was second but not for long as Remy Gardner pulled the same moved he did on Lowes at turn two, but it may be loo late to attack his team-mate for the win. Onto the last lap Gardner was closing the gap by 0.4 seconds. It was 0.3 seconds by the second sector, but Remy had a moment through curvone.

Raul Fernandez won the race ahead of Remy Gardner in second and Aron Canet in third, Sam Lowes took another fourth place with Marco Bezzecchi in fifth.

34 points separate Remy Gardner and Raul Fernandez with Marco Bezzecchi 81 points behind with Sam Lowes now out of the running for the championship being 131 points behind.

Featured Image: MotoGP.com