Le Mans MotoGP: Luthi dominates wet Moto2 race

Swiss rider Thomas Luthi dominated the wet Moto2 race at Le Mans to comfortably take his second Moto2 victory.

It was Pol Espargaro who lead in to the first corner, with Brit Scott Redding making a very brave move to take second place, before Luthi eased passed.

With Espargaro leading, the following riders all bunched up before Luthi took the lead on lap eight and promptly gapped the following riders, eventually winning by over six seconds. Espargaro finished sixth to take the lead in the championship by one point.

Gino Rea got off to a brilliant start in his first race using a new Suter chassis. Rea was upto fourth on lap seven, leading Redding and Bradley Smith. Rea then had a moment on coming out of the final corner of lap seven, taking him back to seventh place.

As Rea rejoined the track and tipped in to the fast first corner Johann Zarco went up the inside. Rea, unaware Zarco was there, clipped the Frenchman’s rear wheel and crashed out of the race.

Zarco continued his charge to the front, moving up to second position and putting pressure on Luthi before crashing out with just four laps remaining. Claudio Corti was pushed up to second, with Brit Scott Redding in third.

Smith ran wide on lap nine while running in fourth, rejoining the race and riding brilliantly to work his way back up to sixth palce. But Smith crashed on the final corner of the last lap. Smith remounted and was able to finish 10th.

After a very slow start championship hopeful Marc Marquez managed to work his way up to fifth before crashing out on lap 11.

1 25 12 Thomas LUTHI SWI Interwetten-Paddock Suter 130.4 50’02.816
2 20 71 Claudio CORTI ITA Italtrans Racing Team Kalex 130.2 +6.354
3 16 45 Scott REDDING GBR Marc VDS Racing Team Kalex 129.9 +12.162
4 13 29 Andrea IANNONE ITA Speed Master Speed Up 129.7 +16.338
5 11 36 Mika KALLIO FIN Marc VDS Racing Team Kalex 129.6 +19.278
6 10 40 Pol ESPARGARO SPA Pons 40 HP Tuenti Kalex 129.5 +20.874
7 9 95 Anthony WEST AUS QMMF Racing Team Moriwaki 129.5 +21.705
8 8 76 Max NEUKIRCHNER GER Kiefer Racing Kalex 129.2 +28.117
9 7 14 Ratthapark WILAIROT THA Thai Honda PTT Gresini Moto2 Suter 128.8 +38.317
10 6 38 Bradley SMITH GBR Tech 3 Racing Tech 3 128.7 +40.940
11 5 80 Esteve RABAT SPA Pons 40 HP Tuenti Kalex 128.6 +44.077
12 4 24 Toni ELIAS SPA Mapfre Aspar Team Suter 127.9 +59.583
13 3 60 Julian SIMON SPA Blusens Avintia Suter 127.8 +1’01.785
14 2 18 Nicolas TEROL SPA Mapfre Aspar Team Suter 127.8 +1’03.430
15 1 77 Dominique AEGERTER SWI Technomag-CIP Suter 127.5 +1’10.341
16  44 Roberto ROLFO ITA Technomag-CIP Suter 127.0 +1’22.145
17  49 Axel PONS SPA Pons 40 HP Tuenti Kalex 126.0 +1’46.994
18  72 Yuki TAKAHASHI JPN NGM Mobile Forward Racing Suter 123.9 1 Lap
19  10 Marco COLANDREA SWI SAG Team FTR 120.5 1 Lap