2015 Misano Moto2 Race Result: Being Naughty Isn't A Good Tactic

Back-flipping Frenchman Johann Zarco, leading the title chase by eighty-five points, sits on pole position, but the fight for second place between Alex Rins and Tito Rabat is still very much undecided.

Zarco won out on the multitude of unusual lines taken in the first few corners to try to lead, with Dominique Aegerter and Alex Rins following when the dust settled. On the second lap, Aegerter and Zarco swapped the lead a few times, trading elbow boops as they swapped the lead round the faster corners. Zarco lost out in that fight while Aegerter went on to snatch the lap record a lap later.

On lap four, Alex Rins passed Zarco and set about closing down Aegerter while Zarco hit the limit of his pace, unable to keep with the faster two riders. Rins was second while his rival Tito Rabat languished in eighth place and, on lap six, he made his challenge for the lead.

As Alex Rins charged the apex, Aegerter retained his lead, closing the door but Rins was carrying far too much speed into the second apex and, rear wheel sliding, he couldn't scrub enough speed off and collected Dominique Aegerter as his front wheel punched Aegerter's rear.

Both riders skittled into the gravel, gifting Zarco with a manageable first place and scuppering Rins's lead over Rabat for second place in the championship. Both riders got back on their bikes and tried to return to the race, but they were too far back to fight for points and Aegerter pitted in. Race Direction announced their interest in the event immediately.

Zarco led ahead of Hafizh Syahrin and Simone Corsi, but it didn't take too many laps for Syahrin to be passed by Corsi, Jonas Folger, Taka Nakagami and Julian Simon. As Zarco hit his stride, building a gap over Corsi and Folger tenth by tenth, Tito Rabat's bike started to work as the weight of the fuel lowered and his handling settled.

Sam Lowes crossed the line to start lap eighteen with his rear tyre smoking. His rear hugger had given up the ghost and was causing him a few problems, but as he entered the last corner he lost power as his hugger bit into the rear tyre, cutting a groove into it and eventually spitting its carbon fibre all over the track as Lowes was forced out of the race.

Nakagami was up to second place with six laps left with Corsi struggling to keep up. Rabat passed Corsi and signalled to him to tuck in behind him if he wanted a lift.

Meanwhile, Alex Rins, with his bike surviving better than Aegerter's was making a nuisance of himself, a lap down and messing with the riders fighting for fourth place and trying to mess with Rabat. He got a penalty to drop two places and ignored it, earning himself a well-deserved black flag.

Rabat caught Nakagami, dropping Corsi in his charge to the front and swapped places with Nakagami several times, but came out the better.

Two laps without any fighting in the top three, Zarco having enough of a gap to keep Rabat at bay.

Johann Zarco won another Moto2 race, performed another back flip and increased his lead to 93 points over Tito Rabat whose second place put him 17 points ahead of Alex Rins whose only points would be penalty points.

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