Sam Lowes takes victory in Misano as Raul Fernandez crashes out

The riders were heading into the unknown with not having any full dry sessions during the weekend, Sam Lowes started on pole with in Jorge Navarro second and Augusto Fernandez in third, Raul Fernandez started in tenth with Remy Gardner in 14th.

The lights went out and it was Sam Lowes who lead the pack into turn one, Augusto Fernandez was in second. Aron Canet immediately moved into second at turn two, then moving into the lead at turn eight. Navarro was third and Augusto was fourth, but he would have to take his long lap penalty.

At the end of lap one, Raul Fernandez was up to seventh while Remy was in 12th. Raul then passed Marcos Ramirez in turn eight, then moving up to fifth with Augusto taking his long lap penalty.

Halfway through lap three and it was a BOSCOSCURO one-two with Canet leading and Navarro overtaking Lowes to move into second. At the end of lap three and Gardner set the fastest lap of the race, he had the pace, but needed to get through the pack as quick as possible to not lose the leaders.

Navarro took the lead at turn eight, but the Spaniard was forced wide at turn 14 by Canet causing the riders behind to slow, allowing Lowes to take the lead and Raul to move into third with Navarro dropping to fourth. Gardner had got up to eighth place.

Marc VDS’s Lowes set the fastest lap of the race and started to pull a gap over Canet, but it was soon Raul as the Red Bull KTM Ajo rider overtook Canet at turn eight and looked to close down on Lowes.

Drama for Gardner as he made a move on Somkiat Chantra and they collided and caused Chantra to go down!

On lap 11 Navarro passed Celestino Vietti to go into fourth place, also Augusto Fernandez was able to go into seventh after Remy ran wide at turn eight. The Australian was not having a good time of it.

Raul Fernandez took the lead on lap 14, out-braking Lowes into turn eight. At the end of the lap, Remy was given a long lap penalty for the incident with Chantra.

All of a sudden Raul Fernandez was down! Losing the front on the brakes and was out of the race, Remy was able to take his long lap penalty and remain in seventh place, but also had a track limits warning and was falling under the pressure of Marco Bezzecchi.

Aron Canet took the lead of the race, capitalising from a mistake from Lowes at turn eight. Bezzecchi had gone through on Gardner at turn one, the championship leader was struggling but he was picking up eight crucial championship points.

Sam Lowes was closing in on Canet and applying the pressure on the Apsar rider, but Sam had a huge moment on the exit of turn ten losing half of a second.

Jorge Navarro made a mistake dropping to sixth place, and Augusto was able to pass Vietti at turn four to move up into the podium positions and was setting lap record pace. Lowes made a move at turn two with contact nearly being made after a moment on the front for the Brit, but fortunately it was clean for both riders.

Marco Bezzecchi was holding off Remy Gardner for seventh place, but lost the front at turn 15 as soon as his knee hit the floor, allowing Remy to move into seventh.

Sam Lowes took the win, his first win since Doha and his first podium since Jerez. Augusto Fernandez made it a Marc VDS one-two, pipping Canet to the line. Celestino Vietti took a personal best finish of fourth place at his home grand prix with Navarro in fifth.

Stefano Manzi brought home a sixth place with championship leader Remy Gardner finishing in seventh, extending his championship lead to 18 points. Federal Oil Gresini’s Fabio Di Giannantonio was eight, Ai Ogura finished in ninth with Marcos Ramirez rounding out the top ten.

The final points finishers were, Albert Arenas in 11th, Bo Bendseyder was 12th, Jake Dixon after his long lap penalty was 13th, Tom Luthi in 14th and Marcel Schrotter took the final points finish in 15th.

Featured Images MotoGP.com