Closing the second Aragon showdown was the intermediate class but the sun skipped this one and allowed some cloud cover and a bit of a breeze to join the party. That did not seem to impact Sam Lowes’ menacing speed in the slightest, the British rider making it three consecutive victories at the end of 21 perfect laps and taking over the lead in the championship. Fabio Di Giannantonio was over eight seconds slower by the checkered flag but scored his best result of the season with second position. Enea Bastianini joined the podium with another consistent performance to aid his title bid.

Poleman Lowes had made a solid launch off the line ahead of Remy Gardener and Di Giannantonio, while front row qualifier Jorge Navarro had a dreadful start and dropped to 10th. Lowes put in a gap of seven tenths by the end of lap one, while Di Giannantonio picked up the chase ahead of Jake Dixon, Gardner and Bastianini. Marcos Ramirez dropped one second behind the leaders and was coming under attack from Jorge Martin and Luca Marini, who were quick to join the top 10 having started on the fourth row. However, Marini was also getting harassed by Augusto Fernandez and Hector Garzo. Meanwhile, Marcos Bezzecchi kept station in 14th, ahead of slow-starting Navarro.

Lowes’ gap grew to two seconds by lap 4, with Di Giannantonio trying to stay one step ahead of the chasing group led by Gardner and Bastianini. Bastianini made a move on the next lap going into turn 16 and was left with a 1.7s gap to compatriot Di Giannantonio. Dixon and Ramirez were doing their best to tag along to the podium battle, while Martin was another second back, in the company of Fernandez and Garzo. Meanwhile, the SKY Racing boys’ nightmare in Aragon continued, with Marini dropping out of the top ten and Bezzecchi crashing out at turn 1 and pretty much ending his championship bid.

Back at the front, Lowes continued to extend his lead to over three seconds by lap 9, while Di Giannantonio had two seconds over Bastianini, who had company from Binder. Another two seconds back, Dixon was under attack from the Spanish foursome of Martin, Fernandez, Garzo and Ramirez. Martin and Fernandez made quick work of the British rider but Garzo crashed out at turn 8 one lap later and was promptly replaced by compatriot Navarro in that group. While his main title rivals were provisionally in podium positions, Marini left the point scoring places with 12 laps remaining.

With 9 laps left, Lowes, Di Giannantonio and Bastianini looked quite secure in their podium positions, with Gardner close enough to pick up the pieces from any mistake from the Italtrans rider, but the cameras were focused on the battle for fifth, where Fernandez, Navarro, Martin and Dixon were having some fun. Navarro looked like the man with the best pace apart from the leader and was probably rueing that poor start. A couple of crashes in the top 10 and some late pace from Marini brought the Italian back into the points in 12th position.

The final handful of laps were a steady procession to the line, Lowes taking the checkered flag eight seconds ahead of Di Giannantonio, with Bastianini securing the final podium position. Gardner held off Navarro for fourth, with the rest of the top ten places going to Martin, Dixon, Fernandez, Ramirez and Joe Roberts. Marini got past Xavi Vierge late on to climb into 11th position and grab a handful of points.

With Lowes taking the win and the championship lead, Bastianini is his main pursuer, 7 points down on the Marc VDS rider. Marini’s deficit grows to 23 points, while teammate Bezzecchi is a distant 48 points down after a dismal couple of weeks in Aragon.

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