Augusto Fernandez took his second Moto2 victory of 2019 in the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, defeating Speed Up’s Jorge Navarro on the final lap.
Fernandez was forced to recover from a slightly average start where he dropped back from his front row start, being passed by the likes of Remy Gardner and Xavi Vierge early on.
He quickly got into his rhythm though, chasing KTM Ajo’s Brad Binder for fourth while the pair closed down Gardner in third.
Fernandez followed the South African through into fourth on the SAG Racing rider after just a few laps, which later became third as early leader Alex Marquez crashed out.
The championship leader ran slightly wide into Brooklands just a few laps into the race having started to pull away from his pursuers, tucking the front of his Marc VDS machine and retiring in the gravel as his clutch lever had broken in the impact.
Binder was now flying, closing down Navarro’s lead and bringing the Pons of Fernandez with him.
He then made his move just past mid-distance, diving down the inside of the Speed Up into Brooklands, immediately looking to build a gap.
Navarro stuck with the KTM though, while Fernandez behind looked to challenge for the win himself just behind the pair.
Binder though was unable to hang on as he dropped back behind Navarro down the Hangar Straight with just a few laps to go, and lost even more ground as he battled Fernandez for second.
The Spaniard made the move stick shortly after though and chased down Navarro, eventually surprising him by diving past at Club corner.
Navarro tried to fight back over the final couple of corners, with a wild dive at Brooklands for the last time nearly cost him second to Binder.
This left Fernandez to chalk up his second ever Moto2 victory, with Navarro and Binder’s KTM just behind.
Remy Gardner nearly snatched third from Binder in the closing stages as he began to struggle for tyre life, but lost out once again on the final lap and was forced to settle for fourth ahead of team-mate Tetsuta Nagashima.
Sixth was Lorenzo Baldassarri on the second Pons bike, while Fabio DiGianantonio took seventh ahead of Thomas Luthi and Luca Marini, while Vierge slipped to tenth by the flag after struggling for pace late on.
Fernandez’s win moves him up to second in the riders standings, level on points with both Luthi and Navarro-the trio having closed to 35 behind Marquez heading to Misano.
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