Moto2: Fernandez takes second win of the season as Lowes crashes out

Round five of the 2021 Moto2 World Championship took place at the Bugatti Circuit in Le Mans, France. Raul Fernandez started from his first pole position in the intermediate class, as the sun broke out in northern France.

The race was declared dry before the start, and it was Marco Bezzecchi who, as he has done so often in 2021, made the holeshot. He led from Raul Fernandez, while others got tangled behind. 

Bezzecchi led for four laps, until Fernandez passed him, moments after Joe Roberts fell at turn nine, at turn 11 on lap five. From there, the Spaniard fashioned himself a safe one-second-or-so gap back to Bezzecchi, who soon was fending off pressure from those behind. 

The Italian’s pursuers came in three shapes: Bo Bendsneyder, one of few riders to choose the softer option Dunlop rear tyre, Remy Gardner and transformed rookie Tony Arbolino. 

Eventually, Gardner was able to pass Bendsneyder for third, and he started to close in on Bezzecchi immediately. When Arbolino tried to make his move on the #64, he ran wide at turn nine and, while he was able to keep the position from the Dutchman, he lost touch with Gardner, and started to drop back. 

It did not take long for Bezzecchi to start feeling the pressure from Gardner, as he ran wide in turn eight with seven laps to go, which allowed the Australian to take over second place. 

Gardner was then able to run a comparable pace to Fernandez, but a couple of fast laps from the Spaniard put him out of reach of the #87, who was forced to settle for second. 

It was a superb ride by the #25 rookie, who took his second victory of the season, and his third podium. It is turning into a real championship challenge from Fernandez, who is now one point off the championship lead and well in the sights of MotoGP teams looking for new talent.

The rider Fernandez is now chasing in the championship is Remy Gardner, who took over the points lead thanks in part to his second place, and in part to a crash by Sam Lowes when he was working his way through the pack. Gardner, too, had to work his way through the field, and perhaps without that he would have been able to challenge Fernandez more thoroughly. 

Rounding out the podium was Marco Bezzecchi, who, apart from that mistake at turn eight, rode a very consistent race. He still misses the speed of the Red Bull Ajo riders, but Bezzecchi has certainly improved from the first three rounds where the latter halves of races saw him fall backwards. Next up is Mugello, and riding for the VR46 team there is no doubt the pressure will be on for the #72, even without fans, to deliver a top result. 

Tony Arbolino took his first top 10 of the season with fourth. A major step forward on Saturday morning allowed him to find a better feeling on his IntactGP Kalex, and he carried that into the race, coming from 19th on the grid to fight for the podium for most of the race. He finished ahead of Bo Bendsneyder, whose soft rear tyre gave up in the second half of the race. 

Fortunately for Bendsneyder, there was over 15 seconds back to the riders behind when his tyre started to fade, so he was able to hold on to his best result of the season with fifth quite comfortably. Behind him were Marcel Schrotter, Ai Ogura, Fabio Di Giannantonio (who recovered from two long lap penalties – one for an incident with Hector Garzo which left the #40 on the floor, and another for going outside the white lines when taking the long lap penalty incurred by the incident – to finish eighth), Simone Corsi, who took his and MV’s best finish of the season, and Jorge Navarro.

Lorenzo Dalla Porta was 11th, ahead of Somkiat Chantra, Nicolo Bulega, Marcos Ramirez and Albert Arenas who took the final point in 15th. 

In 16th was Hafizh Syahrin, ahead of his NTS teammate Barry Baltus, Lorenzo Baldassarri, Jake Dixon, Celestino Vietti and Tomasso Marcon, who was the final classified finisher in 21st.

There were plenty of retirements, starting with Aron Canet on lap one at turn nine with a major high side that he walked away from. He was joined on the side lines by Augusto Fernandez, Yari Montella’s replacement Alonso Lopez, Stefano Manzi, Sam Lowes, Xavi Vierge (who was taken down by Lowes), Joe Roberts, Hector Garzo, Tom Luthi and Cameron Beaubier.