RAUL FERNANDEZ PIPS GARDNER TO MOTO2 WIN
Raul Fernandez beat his Australian teammate Remy Gardner to the line in what was a nail-biting Moto2 race at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli.
The Australian started from fourth on the grid and spent much of the race outside of the podium positions, however a storming end to the race saw the Australian hone in on what would have been an incredibly unlikely race victory.
Pole sitter Fernandez fell to third position himself behind Sam Lowes and Aron Canet early in the race, while Gardner was shuffled back to sixth in the opening sequence of turns.
As half distance approached Fernandez appeared to find some speed.
Lowes made an unforced error at Turn 14 on lap 8 allowing Canet into the lead, and just a couple of turns later Fernandez followed Canet through by making a clean move up the inside at Turn 1.
By this point Gardner had made his way back up to fourth and was closing in on the leading trio.
The top four sat line astern on lap 15 of 25, it was on this lap that Fernandez made the decisive move, snatching the lead from Canet.
The win for Gardner appeared out of range at this point with just 10 laps to go.
On lap 17 Gardner made his way past Lowes with a well-executed pass at Turn 2 on lap 17.
The trio then pulled clear of the British rider, Fernandez, Canet and Gardner setting lap record pace lap after lap in what was an incredibly intense fight up the front of the field.
With less than a handful of laps to go Canet began to fade, allowing Gardner to take the place in an identical move up the inside at Turn 2 on the penultimate lap.
The gap between the leading Ajo teammates was over 1s, however Gardner still smelt victory.
Every corner the Australian was visibly gaining on his championship rival and got the gap down to under 0.3s on the final lap.
It looked as if the fight for the win was going down to the wire, however Gardner had a big moment at Turn 11 nearly firing himself over the handlebars of his Kalex.
The Aussie was lucky to hold on, but as a result he was forced to settle for P2 for the second successive weekend.
Fernandez took the victory by 0.4s and closed the margin in the championship down to 34 points with four races to go.
Gardner came home second ahead of Canet, Lowes, Merco Bezzecchi and Augusto Fernandez.
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