Lorenzo Baldassarri held off Remy Gardener to take his second win of 2019, keeping up his 100% start to the 2019 Moto2 season at Termas de Rio Hondo in Argentina.

The Italian’s life was made easier when pole sitter Xavi Vierge was forced to retire on the warm-up lap with an electrical issue. Starting from the outside of the front row, the Italian quickly found himself in a lead group of four with Remy Gardener, Marcel Schrotter and Alex Marquez.

The front four largely stayed, as they were with the chasing group unable to catch up. Contenders Sam Lowes and Tom Luthi had their own crashes within one corner of each other, allowing the front four to battle it out.

Baldassarri moved forward methodically, and after disposing of Schrotter and Marquez, with four laps to go the Pons rider sat behind the Australian and slipstreamed him down into turn four. Edging in front, Baldassarri drifted across, forcing Gardener wide.

From that point on and with a second lead in his pocket, it was a case of keeping things neat and tidy, which he did, allowing him to take his second victory in as many races to start the season.

Gardener was second and looked a mixture of happy and frustrated with his first podium after failing to challenge Baldassarri once he took the lead. Alex Marquez rounded out the podium finishers on his Marc VDS machine.

Iker Lecuona profited from a late rampaging run from Brad Binder with the Red Bull rider running Schrotter wide, allowing Lecuona to pass them both into fourth. Binder did come home in fifth in front of Schrotter who was sixth.

Luca Marini was seventh on his Sky Racing VR46 machine, with Jorge Navarro, Enea Bastianini and Somikat Chantra rounding out the top ten finishers. Andrea Locatelli was eleventh, ahead of Tetsuta Nagashima. Khairul Idham Pawi, Bo Bendsneyder and Jesko Raffin rounded out the point scorers.