Teruel Moto2: Lowes takes title lead with Teruel win
Ex-Aprilia MotoGP rider Sam Lowes vaulted into the lead of the Moto2 standings after securing a dominant lights-to-flag victory in the Teruel Grand Prix
Lowes had capitalised on crashes for rivals to win the previous two races at Le Mans and Aragon, but the Marc VDS rider didn't require misfortune on others' part this time as he led every lap of the race to complete a hat-trick of wins.
Lowes got the holeshot from pole position to lead into Turn 1, with Fabio Di Giannantonio passing Remy Gardner at the following corner to move up to second.
Petronas Sprinta rider Jake Dixon also dispatched Gardner on the opening lap to grab third after a rapid start from seventh on the grid, only for the SAG rider to repass him on lap 3.
But Gardner was himself demoted from the final podium spot just two laps later by Italtrans' Enea Bastianini, who had arrived for the second Aragon race as the championship leader.
While Bastianiani had managed to jump up from sixth to third in the opening five laps of the race, the top two were already well up the road by then, with Lowes leading the race by two seconds and Di Giannantonio having a 1.3s buffer over third place.
Lowes continued to stretch his lead from then on, doubling his advantage over the next six laps, before pulling another four seconds clear in the final part of the race.
The British rider eventually took the flag by eight seconds to take his sixth ever Moto2 win, and move into the lead of the riders' standings for the first time in 2020.
Di Giannantonio enjoyed a clean run to second, with Bastianini finishing another two seconds down in third to remain within seven points of new championship leader Lowes.
Their title rival Luca Marini ran as high as eighth in the early laps of the race, but fell outside the points at one stage, before recovering enough to salvage an eight-place result.
Marini's VR46 team-mate Marco Bezzecchi's title hopes all but ended when he crashed at Turn 1 on lap 4, having qualified a disastrous 14th. Bezzecchi now sits 48 points adrift of Lowes with just three rounds to run in November.
Back at the front, Gardner finished two seconds off the podium in fourth, with front row starter Jorge Navarro (Speed Up) taking fifth after recovering from a terrible launch that left him in the lower reaches of the top 10.
Jorge Martin was classified sixth on the lead Ajo bike, ahead of Dixon and Augusto Ferandez (Marc VDS), with American Racing Team pair Marco Ramirez and Joe Roberts completing the top 10.
Results - 21 laps
Pos | Rider | Team | Bike | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Sam Lowes | EG 0,0 Marc VDS | Kalex/Triumph | 39m27.645s |
2 | Fabio Di Giannantonio | MB Conveyors - Speed Up Racing | Speed Up/Triumph | 8.425s |
3 | Enea Bastianini | Italtrans Racing Team | Kalex/Triumph | 10.871s |
4 | Remy Gardner | ONEXOX TKKR SAG Team | Kalex/Triumph | 12.657s |
5 | Jorge Navarro | MB Conveyors - Speed Up Racing | Speed Up/Triumph | 13.006s |
6 | Jorge Martin | Red Bull KTM Ajo | Kalex/Triumph | 14.766s |
7 | Jake Dixon | Petronas Sprinta Racing | Kalex/Triumph | 16.905s |
8 | Augusto Fernandez | EG 0,0 Marc VDS | Kalex/Triumph | 17.027s |
9 | Marcos Ramirez | Tennor American Racing | Kalex/Triumph | 21.888s |
10 | Joe Roberts | Tennor American Racing | Kalex/Triumph | 22.951s |
11 | Luca Marini | SKY Racing Team VR46 | Kalex/Triumph | 24.969s |
12 | Xavi Vierge | Petronas Sprinta Racing | Kalex/Triumph | 26.206s |
13 | Hafizh Syahrin | Kipin Energy Aspar Team Moto2 | Speed Up/Triumph | 26.317s |
14 | Tetsuta Nagashima | Red Bull KTM Ajo | Kalex/Triumph | 26.685s |
15 | Simone Corsi | MV Agusta Forward Racing | MV Agusta/Triumph | 26.899s |
16 | Bo Bendsneyder | NTS RW Racing GP | NTS/Triumph | 27.404s |
17 | Nicolo Bulega | Federal Oil Gresini Moto2 | Kalex/Triumph | 30.319s |
18 | Lorenzo Dalla Porta | Italtrans Racing Team | Kalex/Triumph | 30.707s |
19 | Somkiat Chantra | Idemitsu Honda Team Asia | Kalex/Triumph | 30.980s |
20 | Marcel Schrotter | Liqui Moly Intact GP | Kalex/Triumph | 31.501s |
21 | Andi Izdihar | Idemitsu Honda Team Asia | Kalex/Triumph | 47.953s |
22 | Xavier Cardelus | Kipin Energy Aspar Team Moto2 | Speed Up/Triumph | 48.375s |
23 | Piotr Biesiekirski | NTS RW Racing GP | NTS/Triumph | 1m00.394s |
- | Stefano Manzi | MV Agusta Forward Racing | MV Agusta/Triumph | Retirement |
- | Edgar Pons | Federal Oil Gresini Moto2 | Kalex/Triumph | Retirement |
- | Lorenzo Baldassarri | Flexbox HP 40 | Kalex/Triumph | Retirement |
- | Hector Garzo | Flexbox HP 40 | Kalex/Triumph | Retirement |
- | Marco Bezzecchi | SKY Racing Team VR46 | Kalex/Triumph | Retirement |
- | Thomas Luthi | Liqui Moly Intact GP | Kalex/Triumph | Retirement |
- | Kasma Kasmayudin | ONEXOX TKKR SAG Team | Kalex/Triumph | Retirement |
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