Lorenzo Baldassarri extended his lead atop the Moto2 World Championship after winning a shortened race after a crash involving Remy Gardener and Alex Marquez brought out a red flag in Jerez.
Coming out of the first corner on the original start, Gardener accelerated out of turn one and lost the rear end of his SAG bike, with the bike in the middle of the track, Marquez was left with nowhere to go and ended up on the floor. Marco Bezzecchi and Dimas Ekky Pratama were also involved in the accident, with both Gardener and Ekky Pratama missing the restart as they were taken to the medical centre for checkups.
Once the race restarted, with the distance now just 15 rather than the original 23 laps, Augusto Fernandez got a perfect start, with Baldassarri tucked in behind his Pons team-mate.
The Italian sat behind his Spanish team-mate and stalked, waiting to pounce and eventually taking the lead with eight laps to go. Edging away from his team-mate and despite a late charge from pole sitter Jorge Navarro, Baldassarri held onto his lead, to claim his third win in four races in 2019.
Baldassarri was joined on the podium by Navarro and it was a strong return from Fernandez in his first race back from the nasty injuries he sustained in Argentina.
Tom Luthi was fourth on his Dynavolt Kalex, ahead of Brad Binder and Xavi Vierge. Tetsuta Nagashima was seventh with Sky Racing VR46 duo Luca Marini, Nico Bulega in eighth and ninth, with Iker Lecuona rounding out the top ten.
Sam Lowes crashed out of the race with 8 laps to go, Lowes walked away from the crash okay, but the Brit was hampered with the shortened race.
