Misano Moto2: Fernandez wins but faces investigation

Augusto Fernandez beat Fabio Di Giannantonio to claim victory in a thrilling Moto2 San Marino Grand Prix, but is under investigation for an aggressive last-lap move.

The Pons rider was forced to run wide at the fast Curvone corner on the last lap while chasing Di Giannantonio, and used that momentum to throw his bike up the inside of the Speed Up at the Carro hairpin – the pair making contact in the process.

Race Direction placed the incident under investigation, with both riders now required to attend a hearing.

Di Giannantonio – having secured his first Moto2 pole on Saturday – grabbed the holeshot off the line ahead of Fernandez, while championship leader Alex Marquez dropped to sixth after a poor launch.

Marquez quickly carved through on the SAG of Tetsuta Nagashima for fifth, and took fourth from Tom Luthi on the following lap before capitalising on a moment for the sister SAG of Remy Gardner exiting the Tramonto right-hander on the third tour to move up to the podium places.

Di Giannantonio survived a rear-end snap on his Speed Up at Turn 3 on the second lap, and dragged Fernandez along to a half-second gap over the chasing Marquez and Luthi.

Fernandez made his first attempt at taking the lead trying to use the switchback between Turns 1 and 2 at the start of lap nine, but was countered by Di Giannantonio at Turn 3.

Another error from the Speed Up rider allowed Fernandez through at Turn 6, but Di Giannantonio immediately struck back at Quercia.

Marquez followed suit at the same turn to move up to second, with a brief scrap allowing Di Giannantonio to open up a lead of seven tenths as Fernandez reclaimed second on lap 13.

Fernandez put on a late charge to reel in Di Giannantonio in the latter stages, and tried once more to take the lead in the opening complex of corner.

The Speed Up rider held firm there, but was powerless to retaliate after Fernandez’s aggressive Carro hairpin move moments later.

Marc VDS’s Marquez completed the podium to keep his points lead at a damage-limiting 26 over Fernandez heading to Aragon.

Luthi put himself back into late podium contention following an early error, but had to settle for fourth aboard his Intact machine ahead of Gresini’s Sam Lowes, who takes his best result of the year in fifth.

Brad Binder (KTM) secured sixth after an aggressive battle with Speed Up’s Jorge Navarro, while Xavi Vierge (Marc VDS), Italtrans’s Enea Bastianini and Lorenzo Baldassarri (Pons).

SAG duo Nagashima and Garnder crashed out in the early stages, as did Tech 3’s Marco Bezzecchi and Petronas SRT stand-in Adam Norrodin.

Mattia Pasini (Tasca) and the sister Intact bike of Marcel Schrotter were absent, after the riders suffered back and shoulder injuries respectively during practice.

Race results

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Rider

BikeLapsTimeGap
140 Augusto FernandezKalex25 41’12.535  
221 Fabio Di GiannantonioSpeed Up25 41’12.721 0.186
373 Alex MarquezKalex25 41’13.818 1.283
412 Thomas LuthiKalex25 41’15.268 2.733
522 Sam LowesKalex25 41’21.299 8.764
641 Brad BinderKTM25 41’21.487 8.952
79 Jorge NavarroSpeed Up25 41’22.463 9.928
897 Xavi ViergeKalex25 41’25.379 12.844
933 Enea BastianiniKalex25 41’26.451 13.916
107 Lorenzo BaldassarriKalex25 41’27.873 15.338
1110 Luca MariniKalex25 41’30.416 17.881
1288 Jorge MartinKTM25 41’33.046 20.511
135 Andrea LocatelliKalex25 41’34.249 21.714
1435 Somkiat ChantraKalex25 41’41.208 28.673
1562 Stefano ManziMV25 41’43.326 30.791
1616 Joe RobertsKTM25 41’44.214 31.679
1764 Bo BendsneyderNTS25 41’44.639 32.104
1877 Dominique AegerterMV25 41’44.859 32.324
1924 Simone CorsiNTS25 41’46.583 34.048
2096 Jake DixonKTM25 41’58.243 45.708
2127 Iker LecuonaKTM25 42’00.056 47.521
223 Lukas TulovicKTM25 42’07.317 54.782
2365 Philipp OttlKTM25 42’10.480 57.945
2436Andi IzdiharKalex25 42’16.357 1’03.822
2518 Xavi CardelusKTM25 42’19.556 1’07.021
 45 Tetsuta NagashimaKalex13 21’43.702 12 Laps
 87 Remy GardnerKalex10 16’37.408 15 Laps
 11 Nicolo BulegaKalex10 16’40.508 15 Laps
 72 Marco BezzecchiKTM6 10’01.228 19 Laps
 47 Adam NorrodinKalex5 8’32.467 20 Laps

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