Moto2™: Augusto Fernandez (KTM Ajo) dominates in Moto2™ at the Sachsenring.

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Augusto Fernandez has dominated the Moto2™ Race at the Liqui Moly Motorrad Grand Prix Deutschland while Pedro Acosta made it a Red Bull KTM Ajo one-two after a thrilling, four-rider battle for the minor placings. Fernandez hit the front on Lap 6 at the Sachsenring and led by as much as nine seconds before he eased off on the 28th and final lap. Pole-sitter Sam Lowes (Elf Marc VDS Racing Team) passed Marcel Schrötter (Liqui Moly Intact GP) on the penultimate tour to snare the final podium place while World Championship leader Celestino Vietti (Mooney VR46 Racing Team) failed to score points after crashing out of 11th position.

Lowes was looking to end a run of five straight zeroes outs after he qualified on pole, and the Briton duly converted that starting berth into the early lead. German Schrötter (Liqui Moly Intact GP) came from fifth on the grid to emerge in second position in the opening corners of his home race, ahead of Fernandez, Albert Arenas (GASGAS Aspar Team), and Joe Roberts (Italtrans Racing Team). Aron Canet (Flexbox HP40), however, had dropped from sixth to 12th and Vietti from eighth to 10th.

Acosta moved into the top five when he got by Roberts on Lap 3 at Turn 1 and, after it looked like Lowes and Schrötter might break away from the pack, Fernandez took matters into his own hands. For three laps in a row, he seized a position by taking the tight line through Turn 3, getting Arenas on Lap 4, Schrötter on Lap 5, and then Lowes for the lead on Lap 6.

Near the end of that sixth lap, Acosta went underneath Arenas for fourth spot at Turn 12, and he was into the podium places at the end of Lap 7 after Schrötter had a big rear end moment as he opened the throttle exiting Turn 13. The German briefly dropped to fifth due to the near-crash but he reclaimed one of those positions when he outbraked Arenas as they arrived at Turn 1 again, and kept himself in contention for a rostrum finish.

Fernandez, who had been quickest in Friday Free Practice, was wasting no time in pressing home his advantage at the front of the field. He galloped to a one-second lead on Lap 8, and had doubled that in just three laps more. Lowes continued to run in second spot and Acosta in third, as Schrötter came under pressure from Arenas. By then, Canet had recovered as far as sixth position, but Vietti was having a much tougher task of it as he fought to try and get back into the top 10.

In fact, Vietti had slumped as far back as 14th when he was passed by Manuel Gonzalez (Yamaha VR46 Master Camp Team) on Lap 14, before Lowes handed over second position to Acosta when he had a rear moment on Lap 15 at Turn 3. Meanwhile, Fernandez was not letting up and his gap over second place had grown to four seconds.

Still, the rest of the top 10 positions were hotly contested under the baking sun at the Sachsenring and Canet, who started the weekend far from full fitness after a recent road car accident, ceded sixth position to Fermin Aldeguer on Lap 16. Three laps later, he had lost seventh position to Aldeguer’s MB Conveyors Speed Up team-mate, Alonso Lopez, a sign he might have been beginning to struggle with the physical toll.

Then, it was one of Canet’s key rivals in the World Championship who relegated him another spot. Ai Ogura (Idemitsu Honda Team Asia), who only qualified 14th, had passed Vietti for 12th in a key move in the context of the title fight on Lap 5, was into the top 10 on Lap 12, and then overtook Canet for eighth on Lap 20 at Turn 1.

Aldeguer got into the top five by passing Arenas, but the next really big moment was Vietti dropping his VR46 entry at Turn 1. The Italian looked to have completed a pass on Gonzalez for 11th position at the start of Lap 22 but folded his front tyre and hit the deck. The World Championship had just got even tighter due to a zero for Vietti.

Fernandez was a thumping seven seconds to the good at that point, but Lowes and Schrötter were coming back into the reckoning for second position, which was still being held by Acosta but under a track limits warning. Lowes passed the Spaniard on Lap 25 at Turn 12, but Acosta hit back on the next lap at Turn 2. That was not the end of the story, with the pole-sitter going through again at Turn 11, only for the rookie to respond once more with a pass at the very next corner.

All of that dicing turned a duel into a four-rider battle as Schrötter and Aldeguer closed in. The German got by Lowes at the start of the penultimate lap but the Marc VDS rider returned the favour at the end of it. It seemed like it could hardly get any closer but then it did get as close as possible – literally – when Lowes and Acosta had a touch as they ran from Turn 12 to the 13th and final corner on the 28th and final lap of the race.

Acosta hung on to claim second position around the bend at the chequered flag, 7.704 seconds behind team-mate Fernandez but 0.140 seconds up on Lowes. Schrötter was only another 0.115 seconds behind again, and Aldeguer crossed the stripe 0.210 seconds further in arrears. He would then have three seconds added to his race time having not had the opportunity to serve a late Long Lap penalty for breaches of track limits, but it made no difference to the final outcome as the Boscoscuro pilot was classified fifth.

Rounding out the top 10 were Arenas, Lopez, Ogura, Canet, and Tony Arbolino (Elf Marc VDS Racing Team). The rest of the points finishers were Jake Dixon (GASGAS Aspar Team), Gonzalez, Roberts, Cameron Beaubier (American Racing), and Somkiat Chantra (Idemitsu Honda Team Asia).

In the World Championship, Vietti is still on top, but his gap over Ogura has been cut to just eight points. Fernandez’s win puts him into third at only 12 points back from the Italian, and Canet also chipped away to sit 17 points off the pace at the halfway mark of the season.

It makes the last round before the summer break all the more important, so make sure you don’t miss the Motul TT Assen on June 24-26!

Moto2™ Race Top 10:

1. Augusto Fernandez (Red Bull KTM Ajo) – 28 laps
2. Pedro Acosta (Red Bull KTM Ajo) + 7.704
3. Sam Lowes (Elf Marc VDS Racing Team) + 7.844
4. Marcel Schrotter (Liqui Moly Intact GP) + 7.959
5. Fermín Aldeguer (MB Conveyors Speed Up) + 11.169
6. Albert Arenas (GASGAS Aspar Team) + 11.635
7. Alonso Lopez (MB Conveyors Speed Up) + 12.805
8. Ai Ogura (Idemitsu Honda Team Asia) + 13.639
9. Aron Canet (Flexbox HP40) + 13.764
10. Tony Arbolino (Elf Marc VDS Racing Team) + 13.800.

Sachsenring

, June 19th 2022

º C

Clear

Track condition: Dry

Humidity: %

Ground: º

Pos.	Points	Rider	Nation	Team	Bike	Km/h
1	25	37AugustoFernandez	ES	Red Bull KTM Ajo	Kalex	155.2	39’44.0190
2	20	51PedroAcosta	ES	Red Bull KTM Ajo	Kalex	154.7	+7.704
3	16	22SamLowes	GB	Elf Marc VDS Racing Team	Kalex	154.7	+7.844
4	13	23MarcelSchrotter	DE	Liqui Moly Intact GP	Kalex	154.6	+7.959
5	11	54FermínAldeguer	ES	MB Conveyors Speed Up	Boscoscuro	154.6	+11.169
6	10	75AlbertArenas	ES	GASGAS Aspar Team	Kalex	154.4	+11.635
7	9	21AlonsoLopez	ES	MB Conveyors Speed Up	Boscoscuro	154.3	+12.805
8	8	79AiOgura	JP	IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia	Kalex	154.3	+13.639
9	7	40AronCanet	ES	Flexbox HP40	Kalex	154.3	+13.764
10	6	14TonyArbolino	IT	Elf Marc VDS Racing Team	Kalex	154.3	+13.800
11	5	96JakeDixon	GB	GASGAS Aspar Team	Kalex	154	+18.553
12	4	18ManuelGonzalez	ES	Yamaha VR46 Master Camp Team	Kalex	154	+18.661
13	3	16JoeRoberts	US	Italtrans Racing Team	Kalex	153.8	+21.789
14	2	6CameronBeaubier	US	American Racing	Kalex	153.7	+23.127
15	1	35SomkiatChantra	TH	IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia	Kalex	153.5	+26.420
16		64BoBendsneyder	NL	Pertamina Mandalika SAG Team	Kalex	153.3	+28.606
17		4Sean DylanKelly	US	American Racing	Kalex	152.7	+39.217
18		84ZontaVan Den Goorbergh	NL	RW Racing GP	Kalex	152.2	+46.429
19		61AlessandroZaccone	IT	Gresini Racing Moto2	Kalex	152.2	+46.785
20		52JeremyAlcoba	ES	Liqui Moly Intact GP	Kalex	152.3	+47.302
21		55AlexToledo	ES	Pertamina Mandalika SAG Team	Kalex	151.6	+56.066
Non-classified riders
		13CelestinoVietti	IT	Mooney VR46 Racing Team	Kalex	154.2	7 laps
		81KeminthKubo	TH	Yamaha VR46 Master Camp Team	Kalex	152.3	8 laps
		42MarcosRamirez	ES	MV Agusta Forward Racing	MV Agusta	149.2	9 laps
		12FilipSalac	CZ	Gresini Racing Moto2	Kalex	153.2	10 laps
		7BarryBaltus	BE	RW Racing GP	Kalex	153	11 laps
		19LorenzoDalla Porta	IT	Italtrans Racing Team	Kalex	151.2	18 laps
		28NiccolòAntonelli	IT	Mooney VR46 Racing Team	Kalex	152.1	18 laps
		24SimoneCorsi	IT	MV Agusta Forward Racing	MV Agusta	152	21 laps
		9JorgeNavarro	ES	Flexbox HP40	Kalex	152.1	25 laps

Pos.	Rider	Nation	Team	Bike	Points
1	13CelestinoVietti	IT	Mooney VR46 Racing Team	Kalex	133
2	79AiOgura	JP	IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia	Kalex	125
3	37AugustoFernandez	ES	Red Bull KTM Ajo	Kalex	121
4	40AronCanet	ES	Flexbox HP40	Kalex	116
5	14TonyArbolino	IT	Elf Marc VDS Racing Team	Kalex	95
6	16JoeRoberts	US	Italtrans Racing Team	Kalex	89
7	23MarcelSchrotter	DE	Liqui Moly Intact GP	Kalex	88
8	51PedroAcosta	ES	Red Bull KTM Ajo	Kalex	75
9	35SomkiatChantra	TH	IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia	Kalex	66
10	96JakeDixon	GB	GASGAS Aspar Team	Kalex	60
11	9JorgeNavarro	ES	Flexbox HP40	Kalex	58
12	22SamLowes	GB	Elf Marc VDS Racing Team	Kalex	51
13	75AlbertArenas	ES	GASGAS Aspar Team	Kalex	45
14	64BoBendsneyder	NL	Pertamina Mandalika SAG Team	Kalex	44
15	6CameronBeaubier	US	American Racing	Kalex	40
16	54FermínAldeguer	ES	MB Conveyors Speed Up	Boscoscuro	32
17	18ManuelGonzalez	ES	Yamaha VR46 Master Camp Team	Kalex	32
18	52JeremyAlcoba	ES	Liqui Moly Intact GP	Kalex	31
19	21AlonsoLopez	ES	MB Conveyors Speed Up	Boscoscuro	25
20	7BarryBaltus	BE	RW Racing GP	Kalex	15
21	19LorenzoDalla Porta	IT	Italtrans Racing Team	Kalex	10
22	62StefanoManzi	IT	Yamaha VR46 Master Camp Team	Kalex	9
23	12FilipSalac	CZ	Gresini Racing Moto2	Kalex	8
24	5RomanoFenati	IT	MB Conveyors Speed Up	Boscoscuro	7
25	2GabrielRodrigo	AR	Pertamina Mandalika SAG Team	Kalex	6
26	61AlessandroZaccone	IT	Gresini Racing Moto2	Kalex	6
27	42MarcosRamirez	ES	MV Agusta Forward Racing	MV Agusta	5
28	81KeminthKubo	TH	Yamaha VR46 Master Camp Team	Kalex	4
29	4Sean DylanKelly	US	American Racing	Kalex	3
30	11MattiaPasini	IT	Inde GASGAS Aspar Team	Kalex	1
31	24SimoneCorsi	IT	MV Agusta Forward Racing	MV Agusta	0
32	84ZontaVan Den Goorbergh	NL	RW Racing GP	Kalex	0
33	28NiccolòAntonelli	IT	Mooney VR46 Racing Team	Kalex	0
34	55AlexToledo	ES	Pertamina Mandalika SAG Team	Kalex	0
35	74PiotrBiesiekirski	PL	Pertamina Mandalika SAG EUVIC	Kalex	0