2016 Phillip Island Moto2 Race: First Will Get You Second

Submitted by Mike Lewis on Sun, 2016-10-23 04:31

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 (2^nd) 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