Gardner pulls clear in Moto2 championship with German GP win

Red Bull KTM Ajo’s Remy Gardner has taken a big win, both in terms of the margin and the Moto2 championship implications, at Germany’s Sachsenring.

Gardner and team-mate Raul Fernandez, his nearest rival for the title, broke away from the field almost as soon as the race got underway.

Fernandez had led when the lights went out but ceded the lead to #87 on Lap 2 at Turn 12.

The Spaniard still stuck with his more experienced team-mate until he crashed out just over four laps into the contest, at Turn 3, and that was effectively the end of the story.

The tumble handed Gardner a lead of almost five seconds back to Aron Canet, and it was from there that the Sydney native seemed to cruise to his third consecutive race win.

He was 5.3s to the good at the end of Lap 10, stretched that to 7.0s on Lap 22, and held much the same margin at the start of the final lap.

Officially, #87’s magnitude of victory was 6.158s after 28 laps, but more important is the fact that his lead over Fernandez in the world championship has blown out to 36 points.

Canet took a lonely second position, having made smart progress from 10th on the grid to be best of the rest around the time that Fernandez went down.

There was, however, a scare for the Aspar rider given the rate at which Marco Bezzecchi (Sky VR46) was closing the gap in the final few laps.

Bezzecchi was 2.7s adrift once he had finally shaken Fabio Di Giannantonio (Federal Oil Gresini) with 10 laps remaining, but was less than 0.9s back at the chequered flag.

Di Giannantonio finished fourth and Sam Lowes (Elf Marc VDS) rounded out the top five.

Lowes had started the final lap in eighth position but Xavi Vierge (Petronas Sprinta) and then Ai Ogura (Honda Team Asia) crashed ahead of him, before he passed Marcel Schrotter (Liqui-Moly Intact GP).

The latter therefore took sixth, ahead of Jorge Navarro, Albert Arenas, Marcos Ramirez, and Cameron Beaubier.

Round 9 is the Dutch TT, at Assen, next weekend (June 25-27).

Race results: German Moto2 Grand Prix

Pos	Num	Rider	Nat	Team	Bike	Time/Gap
1	87	Remy GARDNER	AUS	Red Bull KTM Ajo	Kalex	39:39.191
2	44	Aron CANET	ESP	Aspar Team Moto2	Boscoscuro	+6.158
3	72	Marco BEZZECCHI	ITA	SKY Racing Team VR46	Kalex	+7.030
4	21	Fabio DI GIANNANTONIO	ITA	Federal Oil Gresini Moto2	Kalex	+8.145
5	22	Sam LOWES	GBR	Elf Marc VDS Racing Team	Kalex	+9.888
6	23	Marcel SCHROTTER	GER	Liqui Moly Intact GP	Kalex	+10.000
7	9	Jorge NAVARRO	ESP	+EGO Speed Up	Boscoscuro	+16.039
8	75	Albert ARENAS	ESP	Aspar Team Moto2	Boscoscuro	+19.394
9	42	Marcos RAMIREZ	ESP	American Racing	Kalex	+21.718
10	6	Cameron BEAUBIER	USA	American Racing	Kalex	+26.393
11	11	Nicolò BULEGA	ITA	Federal Oil Gresini Moto2	Kalex	+26.732
12	2	Alonso LOPEZ	ESP	Flexbox HP40	Kalex	+26.835
13	64	Bo BENDSNEYDER	NED	Pertamina Mandalika SAG Team	Kalex	+28.034
14	70	Barry BALTUS	BEL	NTS RW Racing GP	NTS	+28.984
15	13	Celestino VIETTI	ITA	SKY Racing Team VR46	Kalex	+31.414
16	14	Tony ARBOLINO	ITA	Liqui Moly Intact GP	Kalex	+33.176
17	55	Hafizh SYAHRIN	MAS	NTS RW Racing GP	NTS	+33.425
18	35	Somkiat CHANTRA	THA	IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia	Kalex	+39.638
19	12	Thomas LUTHI	SUI	Pertamina Mandalika SAG Team	Kalex	+39.682
20	62	Stefano MANZI	ITA	Flexbox HP40	Kalex	+44.613
21	96	Jake DIXON	GBR	Petronas Sprinta Racing	Kalex	+47.416
DNF	79	Ai OGURA	JPN	IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia	Kalex	1 Lap
DNF	97	Xavi VIERGE	ESP	Petronas Sprinta Racing	Kalex	1 Lap
DNF	16	Joe ROBERTS	USA	Italtrans Racing Team	Kalex	1 Lap
DNF	19	Lorenzo DALLA PORTA	ITA	Italtrans Racing Team	Kalex	14 Laps
DNF	37	Augusto FERNANDEZ	ESP	Elf Marc VDS Racing Team	Kalex	22 Laps
DNF	7	Lorenzo BALDASSARRI	ITA	MV Agusta Forward Racing	MV Agusta	22 Laps
DNF	25	Raul FERNANDEZ	ESP	Red Bull KTM Ajo	Kalex	24 Laps
DNF	54	Fermín ALDEGUER	ESP	+EGO Speed Up	Boscoscuro	25 Laps
DNF	24	Simone CORSI	ITA	MV Agusta Forward Racing	MV Agusta	0 Lap

Race winner: 28 laps

Championship points

Pos	Rider	Nat	Pts
1	Remy GARDNER	AUS	164
2	Raul FERNANDEZ	ESP	128
3	Marco BEZZECCHI	ITA	117
4	Sam LOWES	GBR	86
5	Fabio DI GIANNANTONIO	ITA	73
6	Marcel SCHROTTER	GER	59
7	Aron CANET	ESP	55
8	Joe ROBERTS	USA	50
9	Xavi VIERGE	ESP	42
10	Ai OGURA	JPN	39
11	Bo BENDSNEYDER	NED	38
12	Augusto FERNANDEZ	ESP	34
13	Jorge NAVARRO	ESP	33
14	Tony ARBOLINO	ITA	30
15	Cameron BEAUBIER	USA	26
16	Albert ARENAS	ESP	18
17	Stefano MANZI	ITA	17
18	Celestino VIETTI	ITA	16
19	Marcos RAMIREZ	ESP	16
20	Jake DIXON	GBR	11
21	Hector GARZO	ESP	11
22	Somkiat CHANTRA	THA	11
23	Nicolò BULEGA	ITA	10
24	Hafizh SYAHRIN	MAS	8
25	Simone CORSI	ITA	7
26	Lorenzo DALLA PORTA	ITA	6
27	Alonso LOPEZ	ESP	4
28	Fermín ALDEGUER	ESP	4
29	Lorenzo BALDASSARRI	ITA	3
30	Barry BALTUS	BEL	2
31	Thomas LUTHI	SUI	2
32	Yari MONTELLA	ITA
33	Tommaso MARCON	ITA
34	Miquel PONS	ESP
35	Fraser ROGERS	GBR
36	Taiga HADA	JPN
37	Piotr BIESIEKIRSKI	POL
38	Keminth KUBO	THA