Austin Moto2: Fernandez boosts title hopes with win, Gardner crashes

Breakout rookie Fernandez led all 18 laps of Sunday’s Moto2 race at the Circuit of the Americas and is now just nine points from the championship lead, after Gardner fell on lap six while trying to chase down the Spaniard.

Home hero Cameron Beaubier briefly snatched the lead from a season-best fifth on the grid, but ran wide at the opening corner and allowed Fernandez and Gardner through.

Beaubier, Gresini’s Fabio Di Giannantonio and Gardner began to engage over second spot, which gifted Fernandez a lead of a second by the second tour.

That advantage began to swell as that trio – soon joined by VR46 rider Marco Bezzecchi – battled hard over second.

Gardner eventually found a way through into second on lap four and quickly pulled away from the pack behind as he set about hinting down his Ajo teammate.

But Gardner blew the doors off the championship battle with Fernandez when he crashed at Turn 15 on the sixth tour – surrendering a comfortable points advantage of 34 coming into Austin race.

The Australian’s tumble allowed Fernandez to open up a lead of over two seconds at the front of the field, with Di Giannantonio now the one chasing him down.

While the gap at the front would come down to 1.5s at one stage as the race moved into its second half, Fernandez responded in the latter stages to grow that again to over two seconds.

Fernandez’s rhythm settled across the final tours, and he eased to the chequered flag to claim his seventh win of the season and third in succession.

That tally of seven wins equals that of Marc Marquez from his rookie Moto2 season back in 2011.

Di Giannantonio claimed a comfortable second, the Gresini rider marking his first podium since he was victorious in Spain back in May.

Bezzecchi rounded out the podium in third, with Augusto Fernandez the sole Marc VDS Kalex at the finish in fourth after teammate Sam Lowes retired with an electrical issues.

Beaubier (American Racing) held onto fifth for the best result of his rookie Moto2 campaign, with fellow debutants Tony Arbolino (Intact GP) and Honda Team Asia’s Ai Ogura trailing him.

Xavi Vierge (Petronas Sprinta), the sister American Racing Kalex of Marcos Ramirez and Vierge’s teammate Jake Dixon completed the top 10. 

Results:

Cla	#	Rider	Bike	Gap	Points
1	25	Raúl Fernández	Kalex		25
2	21	Fabio Di Giannantonio	Kalex	1.734	20
3	72	Marco Bezzecchi	Kalex	3.100	16
4	37	Augusto Fernandez	Kalex	4.061	13
5	6	Cameron Beaubier	Kalex	5.381	11
6	14	Tony Arbolino	Kalex	7.577	10
7	79	Ai Ogura	Kalex	11.087	9
8	97	Xavi Vierge	Kalex	14.949	8
9	42	Marcos Ramirez	Kalex	16.051	7
10	96	Jake Dixon	Kalex	18.278	6
11	44	Arón Canet	Boscoscuro B-21	20.679	5
12	9	Jorge Navarro	Boscoscuro B-21	22.738	4
13	24	Simone Corsi	MV Agusta	22.913	3
14	35	Somkiat Chantra	Kalex	23.247	2
15	64	Bo Bendsneyder	Kalex	23.108	1
16	45	Tetsuta Nagashima	Kalex	27.006
17	70	Barry Baltus	NTS	28.086
18	16	Joe Roberts	Kalex	32.719
19	62	Stefano Manzi	Kalex	37.542
20	55	Hafizh Syahrin	NTS	39.658
21	54	Fermín Aldeguer	Boscoscuro B-21	40.685
22	7	Lorenzo Baldassarri	MV Agusta	47.168
	13	Celestino Vietti Ramus	Kalex
	23	Marcel Schrotter	Kalex
	75	Albert Arenas	Boscoscuro B-21
	40	Hector Garzo	Kalex
	22	Sam Lowes	Kalex
	87	Remy Gardner	Kalex
	12	Thomas Luthi	Kalex
View full results