Race report

Moto2 Doha

Doha Moto2: Lowes holds off Gardner for second straight win

Sam Lowes fended off Remy Gardner to claim his second-successive win in 2021 in a tense Moto2 Doha Grand Prix, as rookie Raul Fernandez bagged his first podium.

Lewis Duncan

Edited: Apr 4, 2021, 4:17 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Sam Lowes, Marc VDS Racing Team

Both Lowes and Gardner ran close on the final lap, but the former resisted pressure from the Ajo KTM rider to strengthen his championship lead.

Marco Bezzecchi jumped poleman Lowes off the line, with the VR46 rider keeping the Briton at bay across the opening lap as Ajo KTM rookie Raul Fernandez moved into third ahead of teammate Gardner.

Such was the pace of the leading quartet that they’d pulled a gap of 1.7 seconds to the rest of the pack by lap three.

Lowes made his move for the lead in the slipstream on the run to Turn 1 at the start of lap four, while Gardner put on a risky – but successful - raid for third on Fernandez at Turn 10.

The gap between Lowes and Bezzecchi immediately opened out to six tenths, with Gardner quick to dispatch of the Italian at Turn 1 on lap six to begin his chase of the lead.

Lowes didn’t look as comfortable on his Marc VDS Kalex as he did a week ago, but managed to hold off Gardner.

Having settled into his rhythm Lowes looked more at ease on his bike at mid-distance, though Gardner regrouped in the latter stages to put pressure on the leader.

Lowes responded to this threat emphatically, the Marc VDS rider firing in a race-best lap of 1m59.026s three tours from the end to open his lead out to over half a second.

Gardner dug deep to keep Lowes in his crosshairs, the Ajo rider improving on Lowes’ fastest lap with a 1m58.991s on the penultimate tour.

The pair ran line astern through the final corners of the race, Gardner looking at a move at Turn 15 but could find no way through.

Lowes covered his line on the way into the last corner, a small moment on acceleration for Gardner allowed the Marc VDS rider to get to the chequered flag 0.190s in front.

Fernandez took a comfortable maiden rostrum in third on the sister Ajo bike having seen off Bezzecchi, while Honda Team Asia rookie Ai Ogura was an impressive fifth.

Augusto Fernandez was sixth on the second Marc VDS Kalex, Celestino Vietti putting on another impressive rookie display in seventh on the VR46 Kalex ahead of Pons’ Stefano Manzi, Xavi Vierge (Petronas Sprinta) and Gresini’s Fabio Di Giannantonio.

Joe Roberts (Italtrans) crashed out of fifth in the early stages of the race, while fellow American Cameron Beaubier slid out of his second Moto2 start for American Racing.

Petronas Sprinta’s Jake Dixon was involved in a collision with Intact GP’s Marcel Schrotter, while Tom Luthi (SAG), Aspar’s Aron Canet and MV Agusta stand-in Tommaso Marcon also crashed out.

Lowes heads to the third round of the season in Portugal in two weeks’ time heading the championship by 10 points from Gardner.

Race results:

Cla # Rider Bike Time 1 22 United Kingdom Sam Lowes
Kalex Moto2 2 87 Australia Remy Gardner
Kalex Moto2 0.190 3 25 Spain Raúl Fernández
Kalex Moto2 3.371 4 72 Italy Marco Bezzecchi
Kalex Moto2 6.789 5 79 Japan Ai Ogura
Kalex Moto2 16.640 6 37 Spain Augusto Fernandez
Kalex Moto2 16.887 7 13 Italy Celestino Vietti Ramus
Kalex Moto2 17.254 8 62 Italy Stefano Manzi
Kalex Moto2 17.283 9 97 Spain Xavi Vierge
Kalex Moto2 17.515 10 21 Italy Fabio Di Giannantonio
Kalex Moto2 18.167 11 14 Italy Tony Arbolino
Kalex Moto2 18.180 12 64 Netherlands Bo Bendsneyder
Kalex Moto2 20.696 13 9 Spain Jorge Navarro
Boscoscuro B-21 22.016 14 19 Italy Lorenzo Dalla Porta
Kalex Moto2 22.043 15 75 Spain Albert Arenas
Boscoscuro B-21 26.266 16 40 Spain Hector Garzo
Kalex Moto2 28.539 17 11 Italy Nicolo Bulega
Kalex Moto2 29.310 18 5 Italy Yari Montella
Boscoscuro B-21 33.150 19 35 Thailand Somkiat Chantra
Kalex Moto2 39.838 20 7 Italy Lorenzo Baldassarri
MV Agusta F2 44.961 21 55 Malaysia Hafizh Syahrin
NTS NH7 56.123 44 Spain Arón Canet
Boscoscuro B-21 96 United Kingdom Jake Dixon
Kalex Moto2 23 Germany Marcel Schrotter
Kalex Moto2 12 Switzerland Thomas Luthi
Kalex Moto2 6 United States Cameron Beaubier
Kalex Moto2 10 Italy Tommaso Marcon
MV Agusta F2 16 Joe Roberts
Kalex Moto2 View full results

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Qatar Moto2: Lowes takes dominant win, podium for Gresini

Next article Portimao Moto2: Fernandez scores maiden win, Lowes crashes

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Zane Smith fined $50,000 by NASCAR for ramming Carson Hocevar after Phoenix Cup race

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Phoenix II

2 h

Zane Smith fined $50,000 by NASCAR for ramming Carson Hocevar after Phoenix Cup race

FIA expects F1 races in Qatar and Abu Dhabi to continue as planned

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

United States GP

7 h

FIA expects F1 races in Qatar and Abu Dhabi to continue as planned

TDS Racing doubles down on IMSA program with two-car LMP2 return

IMSA

IMSA IMSA 7 h

TDS Racing doubles down on IMSA program with two-car LMP2 return

Why Isack Hadjar doesn’t like F1 sprints anymore

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

Singapore GP

7 h

Why Isack Hadjar doesn’t like F1 sprints anymore

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts