The Moto3 championship may be close to wrapping up, but the Moto2 championship is still wide open. Franco Morbidelli took steps to increase his overall lead over Thomas Luthi with a series of risky moves which saw him cross the line for victory, ahead of Mattia Pasini and Miguel Oliveira.
Oliveira qualified on pole and got the best start off the line, but once Morbidelli took to the front on lap two he started to create a gap, leaving the battle for second well and truly behind him. Pasini’s start off the line was not so great, and he entered the first corner in fifth. He pushed his way through to second and started putting the pressure on Morbidelli by shaving seconds off his initial gap. With nine laps to go, Pasini made his first move to the front but ran it wide, allowing Morbidelli back through. One lap later, Pasini made his move again and this time made it stick, leading the race for four laps until Morbidelli came back through. The two battled it out through a series of risky moves – most notably Morbidelli coming through on Pasini in the middle of the Corkscrew. They battled until the last lap, where Morbidelli squeezed past Pasini to take victory, extending his overall championship lead to twenty one points.
Although he’d achieved a front row start despite injury, Alex Marquez was forced to retire with ten laps to go. He’d put up a good fight at the beginning defending his position from Oliveira and Luthi, but began dropping back down the pack before eventually deciding to retire due to pain.
Now Morbidelli has a twenty one point advantage over Thomas Luthi, this championship is far from over.
Moto2 top ten:
- Franco Morbidelli, EG 0,0 Marc VDS – 40:09.904
- Mattia Pasini, Italtrans Racing Team +0.145
- Miguel Oliveira, Red Bull KTM Ajo +0.577
- Thomas Luthi, CarXpert Interwetten +4.181
- Brad Binder, Red Bull KTM Ajo +4.331
- Jorge Navarro, Federal Oil Gresini Moto2 +7.328
- Simone Corsi, Speed Up Racing +7.597
- Takaaki Nakagami, IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia +7.630
- Sandro Cortese, Dynavolt Intact GP +10.973
- Francesco Bagnaia, Sky Racing Team VR46 +12.657
