Raul Fernandez cruised to a third straight Moto2 win at the Circuit of the Americas as team-mate and series leader Remy Gardner crashed out early on.
Fernandez initially lost out to a rapid-starting Cameron Beaubier off the start but swiftly moved back into the lead as the American Racing pilot ran wide at the exit of the opening bend.
Beaubier soon came under pressure for second soon after relegating Gardner from the position, the resulting scrapping allowing Fernandez to craft a lead of over a second by the time the Aussie managed to establish himself firmly in the runners-up spot.
Fernandez held strong ahead of his team-mate until Gardner crashed out at Turn 15 after running wide on entry, the points leader failing to get his Ajo machine re-fired and thus retiring from a race for the first time this season.
Fabio Di Gianantonio picked up the challenge of trying to deny Fernandez the hattrick of successes, though ultimately the Spaniard’s consistency proved too steep of a mountain to climb as he took the chequered flag 2.3 seconds clear of the Gresini pilot after 18 tours.
Marco Bezzecchi enjoyed a relatively lonely race to complete the rostrum, though the VR46 rider had been closed down by Marc VDS’ Augusto Fernandez in the closing stages.
Home hero Beaubier scored his best ever Moto2 race result in fifth having dropped back from the podium tussle late on, while Intact GP’s Tony Arbolino collected the fourth top ten finish of his season in sixth.
Ai Ogura recovered from a late mistake to grab seventh ahead of Petronas SRT’s Xavi Vierge, while the other American Racing Kalex of Marcos Ramirez headed home Jake Dixon who completed the top ten.
Sam Lowes’ tough Americas Grand Prix outing continued on Sunday after running into problems early on, the Brit falling well out of the top 20 in the opening laps before eventually retiring with a suspected mechanical fault with his Marc VDS bike.
Fernandez’s seventh win of 2021 twinned with the retirement of his team-mate means he closes to within just nine points of Gardner with three races remaining, the title battle reignited between the Ajo men as they each look to take the psychological advantage into their MotoGP tenures with Tech 3 next year.
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