Nobody could get close to Lowes’ lap times. The lead was up to 3.6 seconds a third of the way through the race and it was going from bad to worse for one of his title rivals. Luca Marini (SKY Racing Team VR46) was down in P14 behind Joe Roberts (Tennor American Racing) and Xavi Vierge (Petronas Sprinta Racing), before Bo Bendsneyder (NTS RW Racing GP) then overtook the Italian and suddenly, Marini was P15 with 12 laps to go. Then, fellow VR46 Academy rider Stefano Manzi (MV Agusta Forward Racing) demoted Marini to P16.

Up front, Lowes was a comfortable four seconds ahead of Di Giannantonio, who was two seconds ahead of Bastianini – the same as it has been for the last handful of laps. In the battle for the top five, Fernandez got the better of Martin and soon after, Dixon cut underneath Martin at the final sweeping double left-hander. However, Navarro then grabbed P6 past Dixon and Martin as the slow-starting Speed Up rider was cutting his way back through the pack brilliantly. Sure enough, Navarro was past Fernandez and up to P5 with seven laps to go.

Back with your race leader, and the lead was five seconds with six laps remaining. Di Giannantonio was 2.8 clear of Bastianini, the Italian had his compatriot covered, with ‘The Beast’ in turn three seconds ahead of Gardner in fourth. The fight for fifth was electric between Navarro, Martin, Fernandez and Dixon, who were slowing creeping up to Gardner with four laps remaining.

Marini had made his way back up to P12 but was embroiled in a proper dog fight for the lower ends of the points – Manzi still hounding him. Up the road, Navarro and Martin took over half a second out of Gardner heading onto Lap 19 of 21, as Gardner faced a tough couple of final laps to keep his P4. The gap was 1.2 with two laps to go, Navarro’s pace was now the same as Lowes’ – that start properly costing Navarro a podium chance.

Lowes made no mistake in the final couple of laps to cruise to another victory, his third at MotorLand and a third of the season. The Briton was on another level and the new World Championship leader has a seven-point advantage heading into the final three races. Diggia crossed the line in a lonely P2 for his second podium of 2020, Bastianini couldn’t close the gap to his compatriot as the latter took P3 – his seventh rostrum of the year.