Submitted by Mike Lewis on
A final-straight slipstream gave Thomas Luthi a second win in a row and moved him into second place in the Moto2 world championship. Luthi’s win by half of a wheel length over Franco Morbidelli (2nd) at the Phillip Island circuit Sunday was his fourth race win in the 2016 season. Sandro Cortese fought through the field to take third.
Lorenzo Baldassarri, climbed fourth place in the contest with eight laps to go and held the position to the end. Takaaka Nakagami continued his late-season improved form for fifth with an eight-second gap to sixth. Jonas Folger (6th) faded late in the race. Andother two seconds back was Simone Corsi (7th) followed by another three-second gap to Axel Pons (8th). Marcel Schrotter (9th) and Xavi Vierge (10th) rounded out the top 10.
Championship contenders Alex Rins and Sam Lowes both crashed out. Points leader Johann Zarco climbed as high as eighth but ended in 12th. The results mean that Zarco with 226 points now leads the championship by 22 points over Luthi and 25 points over Rins who dropped to third in the Championship with two races remaining. Before last week's Motegi race, Rins was a single point behind Zarco.
Result:
Pos. | No. | Rider | Bike | Time / Diff. |
1 | 12 | Thomas LUTHI | Kalex | 39'15.891 |
2 | 21 | Franco MORBIDELLI | Kalex | 0.01 |
3 | 11 | Sandro CORTESE | Kalex | 0.53 |
4 | 7 | Lorenzo BALDASSARRI | Kalex | 3.081 |
5 | 30 | Takaaki NAKAGAMI | Kalex | 3.815 |
6 | 94 | Jonas FOLGER | Kalex | 11.087 |
7 | 24 | Simone CORSI | Speed Up | 13.291 |
8 | 49 | Axel PONS | Kalex | 16.411 |
9 | 23 | Marcel SCHROTTER | Kalex | 17.65 |
10 | 97 | Xavi VIERGE | Tech 3 | 17.665 |
11 | 19 | Xavier SIMEON | Speed Up | 17.762 |
12 | 5 | Johann ZARCO | Kalex | 17.796 |
13 | 2 | Jesko RAFFIN | Kalex | 31.575 |
14 | 57 | Edgar PONS | Kalex | 34.67 |
15 | 14 | Ratthapark WILAIROT | Kalex | 40.454 |
16 | 10 | Luca MARINI | Kalex | 47.707 |
17 | 70 | Robin MULHAUSER | Kalex | +1'34.470 |
18 | 93 | Ramdan ROSLI | Kalex | 1 Lap |
Not Classified | ||||
20 | Alessandro NOCCO | Kalex | 2 Laps | |
54 | Mattia PASINI | Kalex | 3 Laps | |
52 | Danny KENT | Kalex | 3 Laps | |
87 | Remy GARDNER | Kalex | 12 Laps | |
60 | Julian SIMON | Speed Up | 16 Laps | |
27 | Iker LECUONA | Kalex | 16 Laps | |
40 | Alex RINS | Kalex | 19 Laps | |
22 | Sam LOWES | Kalex | 23 Laps | |
Not Finished 1st Lap | ||||
55 | Hafizh SYAHRIN | Kalex | 0 Lap |
Comments
Great race!
Crazy how Zarco/Rins/Lowes are on such bad streaks of results, and Luthi is hot - 3 wins in the last 5. Should be a very interesting last 2 races!
Point since Silverstone
Zarco: 45
Luthi: 98
Rins: 39
Morbidelli: 83
Lowes: 25