Moto2: Marquez claims first Moto2 victory
Reigning 125cc champion Marc Marquez put the troubled start to his Moto2 career behind him with a very strong ride to victory at Le Mans
Incidents in the first three rounds meant Marquez had not even scored prior to the French event, and in the early laps today he was at the tail of a lead train also featuring polesitter and points leader Stefan Bradl, Thomas Luthi, Yuki Takahashi, Julian Simon, Aleix Espargaro, Simone Corsi and Bradley Smith.
Marquez worked his way forward until at half-distance he was in the thick of things as Luthi stormed past Bradl to lead at the first corner, and Bradl then fell to fourth behind Takahashi and Marquez while trying to fight back.
With six laps to go, Marquez edged ahead of Luthi to lead at the first corner, but the Interwetten rider was able to hang on alongside and get back ahead into the next left-hander.
Next time around though, Marquez pulled off the move more emphatically, and then started pulling away as the trio behind battled.
His final winning margin was 1.9 seconds over Takahashi, with Bradl getting a podium position in the end, just ahead of Simon and Luthi.
Espargaro faded to a lonely sixth, while Corsi beat Dominique Aegerter, Smith and Alex de Angelis to seventh.
Andrea Iannone, who started the weekend as Bradl's closest championship rival, crashed out in a solo incident on the first lap.
Results - 26 laps:
Pos Rider Team/Bike Time/Gap
1. Marc Marquez Catalunya Suter 43m03.308s
2. Yuki Takahashi Gresini Moriwaki + 1.982s
3. Stefan Bradl Kiefer Kalex + 2.237s
4. Julian Simon Aspar Suter + 2.349s
5. Thomas Luthi Interwetten Suter + 2.609s
6. Aleix Espargaro Pons Kalex + 12.295s
7. Simone Corsi Ioda FTR + 18.739s
8. Dominique Aegerter Technomag-CIP Suter + 18.918s
9. Bradley Smith Tech 3 + 20.408s
10. Alex de Angelis JIR Motobi + 20.566s
11. Jules Cluzel Forward Suter + 23.225s
12. Randy Krummenacher Kiefer Kalex + 23.359s
13. Pol Espargaro Speed Up FTR + 23.676s
14. Michele Pirro Gresini Moriwaki + 24.756s
15. Max Neukirchner MZ + 25.063s
16. Scott Redding Marc VDS Suter + 29.587s
17. Kenny Noyes Avintia-Stx FTR + 32.803s
18. Xavier Simeon Tech 3 + 32.997s
19. Raffaele de Rosa G22 Moriwaki + 33.273s
20. Yonny Hernandez Blusens FTR + 34.837s
21. Esteve Rabat Blusens FTR + 35.765s
22. Claudio Corti Italtrans Suter + 41.502s
23. Mattia Pasini Ioda FTR + 49.702s
24. Ratthapark Wilairot Thai Honda FTR + 50.198s
25. Anthony West MZ + 50.789s
26. Kenan Sofuoglu Technomag-CIP Suter + 51.362s
27. Kev Coghlan Castello FTR + 51.471s
28. Valentin Debise Speed Up FTR + 1m01.904s
29. Javier Fores Aspar Suter + 1m14.039s
30. Robertino Pietri Italtrans Suter + 1m14.338s
31. Mashel Al Naimi QMMF Moriwaki + 1m28.827s
32. Alexander Cudlin QMMF Moriwaki + 1m29.889s
Retirements:
Mike di Meglio Tech 3 24 laps
Axel Pons Pons Kalex 23 laps
Ricard Cardus QMMF Moriwaki 19 laps
Steven Odendaal MS Suter 14 laps
Alex Baldolini Forward Suter 11 laps
Mika Kallio Marc VDS Suter 4 laps
Andrea Iannone Speed Master Suter 0 laps
Santiago Hernandez SAG FTR 0 laps
Share Or Save This Story
Hamilton accepts blame for incident with Albon in F1 Brazilian GP
Ferrari drivers called to F1 stewards over Brazilian GP collision
Will Alonso's Indy failure end the age of versatility?
Forthcoming KTM switch not impacting Marquez's involvement in GP26 development
Why Gresini has flirted with leaving Ducati
Why Alex Marquez should no longer be undervalued after his brilliant MotoGP campaign
MotoGP confident it will "reach an agreement" with manufacturers over commercial cycle
How over the course of two decades GT3 became modern motorsport’s greatest success
Why time is running out to make bigger F1 power unit changes for 2027
Where will ‘yo-yo’ F1 racing return?
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments