Just one point covers the top three in the Championship after Fernandez’s second straight victory
The Moto2™ World Championship sits on a knife edge going into the summer break after Augusto Fernandez picked up his second win in a row, at the Motul TT Assen. The Red Bull KTM Ajo rider has moved into a share of the points lead with Celestino Vietti (Mooney VR46 Racing Team), who finished fourth at the TT Circuit Assen. Ai Ogura (Idemitsu Honda Team Asia) sits just a point further back after somehow staying on his bike and hauling his way back from as low as 16th to claim second on the day, with pole-sitter Jake Dixon (Inde GASGAS Aspar Team) completing the podium.
It was as you were when the race got underway as far as the top two was concerned, with Dixon leading Inde GASGAS Aspar team-mate Albert Arenas into the first corner. Alonso Lopez (MB Conveyers Speed Up), however, had launched well from fifth on the grid before passing Arenas for second at De Strubben and then Dixon for first at Stekkenwal. Marcel Schrötter (Liqui Moly Intact GP) moved into third when he passed Arenas at the Geert Timmer Chicane on Lap 4, in what was something of a breakaway quartet at the head of the field.
However, Fernandez reeled them in and he gladly took fourth position when Arenas made a small error at De Strubben on Lap 5. Then, just up the road at De Bult, Schrötter picked off Dixon to move into second position and Arenas got back ahead of Fernandez, as home hero Bo Bendsneyder (Pertamina Mandalika SAG Team) lurked in sixth spot.
Schrötter takes the lead before striking disaster
Arenas got back into the podium places when he overtook Dixon at the Timmer Chicane on Lap 7, before Schrötter hit the front for the first time when he got past Lopez as they ran down the back straight on Lap 8. Fernandez passed Dixon for fourth at De Strubben on Lap 9, before Lopez ceded second position to Arenas and third to Fernandez on a ragged 10th lap of the race.
Schrötter looked like he might finally break through for his first Grand Prix victory until disaster struck for the German on Lap 12, when he crashed out at De Strubben and handed the lead to Arenas. On Lap 13, Lopez re-passed Fernandez at the Timmer Chicane, but the German GP winner prised second position back from the man on the Boscoscuro chassis at De Strubben…