Remy Gardner cruised to a third-straight Moto2 win in dominant fashion at the Sachsenring for the German Grand Prix after team-mate and pole-man Raul Fernandez crashed out early on.
The Aussie managed to move from third to second heading into Turn 1 courtesy of a slow-starting Fabio Di Gianantonio, slotting in behind team-mate Fernandez who had converted pole to an early lead.
Gardner looked keen to put one over on his rookie stable-mate though as he wasted no time in moving into the lead before the end of the second tour, the leading duo sprinting away from third-placed Xavi Vierge at around a second-per-lap in the early running.
Disaster was soon to follow for Fernandez though as he tucked the front of his Ajo-run Kalex at Turn 5 just prior to half-a-dozen laps into the encounter, the Spaniard sliding off into the gravel and subsequent early retirement.
This left Gardner with a 5.5 second advantage over an under-pressure Vierge, the Petronas SRT man losing position to a charging Aron Canet a lap later before riding off into the distance in an attempt to try and catch Gardner.
The series leader though was able to expertly manage his lead across the remaining laps, taking the chequered flag just over six seconds clear of Aspar Boscoscuro racer Canet, who scored his first second rostrum of the year.
The battle for third wasn’t decided until late in the contest, Marco Bezzecchi desperately trying to hold off a recovering Di Gianantonio, the Gresini man pressing the VR46 hard as the race entered its closing stages.
A small error from Di Gianantonio allowed Bezzecchi a moment of respite as the race’s climax drew ever closer, the latter then edging clear over the final few circulations to complete the podium positions as he continued his impressive streak of finishing inside the top six in every race so far across 2021.
Di Gianantonio therefore had to make do with fourth ahead of Sam Lowes, who picked up three places on the final lap owing to a spate of late crashes.
Vierge looked to be on for sixth as he started the final tour before crashing at Turn 1, while Ai Ogura looked good to match his best result of fifth before going down at Turn 8 just a few bends from home.
A last-gasp overtake on Marcel Schrotter gifted Lowes an unlikely top five, though the German still was sixth ahead of factory Boscoscuro Speed Up man Jorge Navarro.
Albert Arenas scored the best result of his rookie intermediate class season so far on the second Aspar machine in eighth ahead of Marcos Ramirez’s American Racing entry, with team-mate Cameron Beaubier completing the top ten.
Jake Dixon to have returned to form following a crew chief change prior to this weekend as he ran within the top ten early on, though a crash with Marc VDS’ Augusto Fernandez put an end to any hope of a points finish.
The two looked to have touched slightly on the entry to Turn 12, causing Fernandez to go down and retire in the gravel while Dixon was able to ride through and re-join, though his significant loss of time meant he could only recover to 18th.
Gardner’s third straight success sees his points lead open out to a commanding 36 over Fernandez, with Bezzecchi now only nine further adrift of the Spaniard.
