The rain managed to hold off even longer to give us a dry Moto2 race, which saw Franco Morbidelli reign supreme.
Alex Marquez took the hole shot, pushing championship leader Franco Morbidelli back to 2nd. But both Morbidelli and Thomas Luthi were on the case of the Spaniard, with both eventually passing him. When Marquez looked as if he was in a good position to fight, he went down in a dramatic crash that saw the bike land on him. Thankfully, he was okay but the crash could play havoc with his title bid in the long run.
It wasn’t just Marquez’s race that came to an abrupt end. Wild card Hector Garzo was going well this weekend, qualifying in 5th on his Moto2 debut. But with 26 laps to go he went down, with Andrea Locatelli crashing in sympathy at the same time. Locatelli’s bike narrowly missed newcomer Garzo, and both riders were okay. By far the most surprising crash was that of Thomas Luthi, a rider who is certainly not known for making mistakes. He went down from 2nd with 17 laps to go, after bridging a gap between him and Miguel Olivera who was running in 3rd.
This gave Olivera the chance to make time on Morbidelli who was sailing away in front. And make time he did, as he constantly chipped away at the gap between them, eventually putting himself in a position to overtake and even take his first Moto2 victory with the KTM Ajo squad.
Unfortunately that win didn’t come for Olivera, but he proved that he is more than capable of staying with the front runners. He kept up with the pace of the Marc VDS machinery right up to the line, ending the race with just a 0.066 second gap on the Italian. Francesco Bagnaia rounded out the podium.
- Franco Morbidelli, EG 0,0 Marc VDS – 41:05.137
- Miguel Olivera, Red Bull KTM Ajo + 0.066
- Francesco Bagnaia, Sky Racing Team VR46 + 0.574
- Simone Corsi, Speed Up Racing + 0.749
- Mattia Pasini, Italtrans Racing Team + 1.300
- Jorge Navarro, Federal Oil Gresini Moto2 + 8.958
- Brad Binder, Red Bull KTM Ajo + 9.204
- Sandro Cortest, Dynavolt Intact GP + 15.099
- Marcel Schrotter, Dynavolt Intact GP + 17.875
- Taka Nakagami, IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia + 19.291