The top three on the grid all got away well and polesitter Sam Lowes (Elf Marc VDS Racing Team) was the last of the late brakers to grab the holeshot, as the British rider led from Gardner and Raul Fernandez. Lowes opened up a 0.6s advantage on the opening lap as Raul Fernandez passed title rival Gardner for second at Turn 12, as Ai Ogura (Idemitsu Honda Team Asia) grabbed P4 from Hector Garzo (FlexBox HP 40). The fastest lap of the race on Lap 2 for Raul Fernandez saw him cut Lowes’ lead to just 0.2s, with Gardner sitting 0.4s down on his teammate in third.

The battered and bruised Fernandez then decided to take the lead at the beginning of Lap 4, with Gardner exchanging P3 with Ogura just behind. Gardner was having a scrapping opening handful of laps in Aragon, the Aussie was wide at Turn 12 and once again conceded P3 to Ogura. Soon after, Garzo was also ahead of Gardner. It was a fascinating scrap that Gardner found himself in, but in getting caught up with the likes of Ogura and Garza – who crashed at Turn 8 on Lap 5 – the gap to Lowes and Fernandez was up to 1.9s.

With 10 laps down, Raul Fernandez was holding Lowes at bay by just over a second. Gardner was over three seconds down on Lowes and had Jorge Navarro (+EGO Speed Up) and Aron Canet (Kipin Energy Aspar Team) in hot pursuit. On Lap 12, Marco Bezzecchi’s (SKY Racing Team VR46) quiet weekend came to a premature end at Turn 8, the Italian slid out of contention unhurt – his title aspirations now hanging by a thread.