Moto2: Aoyama escapes late crash to win
Hiroshi Aoyama survived a crash with Alvaro Bautista on the penultimate lap to win the 250cc race at Assen today
The pair had charged away from Marco Simoncelli and Hector Barbera to contest the victory between themselves in the closing laps.
Aoyama led with Bautista preparing a late challenge close behind when they collided half way round the penultimate lap.
Aoyama made a mistake and ran too deep into the right-hand part of the chicane mid-way around the lap and, as he slowed to recover into the left-hander, Bautista arrived carrying much more speed and struck the back of the Honda.
Bautista was thrown off as his Aprilia catapulted into the air, but Aoyama somehow stayed on his bike and survived the final lap with a cut tyre and flapping mudgard to take the win.
Barbera got the better of Simoncelli in their contest and inherited second place from Bautista, with Simoncelli completing the podium in third.
Aleix Espargaro and Roberto Locatelli pulled clear of Alex Debon in the second half of the race to finish fourth and fifth.
Pos Driver Bike Time 1. Hiroshi Aoyama Honda 40m44.008s 2. Hector Barbera Aprilia +4.424 3. Marco Simoncelli Gilera +10.339 4. Aleix Espargaro Aprilia +11.383 5. Roberto Locatelli Gilera +11.596 6. Alex Debon Aprilia +14.265 7. Karel Abraham Aprilia +17.982 8. Hector Faubel Honda +19.012 9. Rattapark Wilairot Honda +20.926 10. Raffaele de Rosa Honda +21.033 11. Mike di Meglio Aprilia +32.128 12. Lukas Pesek Aprilia +41.329 13. Alex Baldolini Aprilia +1:05.321 14. Valentin Debise Honda +1:12.451 15. Imre Toth Aprilia +1 lap 16. Vladimir Leonov Aprilia +1 lap Retirements Alvaro Bautista Aprilia 22 laps Bastien Chesaux Honda 19 laps Axel Pons Aprilia 16 laps Toby Markham Honda 14 laps Steve Bonsey Aprilia 13 laps Mattia Pasini Aprilia 13 laps Thomas Luthi Aprilia 10 laps Jules Cluzel Aprilia 5 laps Shoya Tomizawa Honda 0 laps
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