Moto2: Simoncelli snatches win from Bautista

This is the second consecutive victory for the Gilera rider, placing him in second place in the championship just three points behind leader Mika Kallio, whose KTM broke down today.

Simoncelli and the Aprilias of Bautista and Hector Barbera opened a gap after the first handful of laps. After 17 of the 23-lap race Barbera started losing ground from the other two, but by then he already had a gap of eleven seconds over Aprilia's Alex Debon in fourth.

Bautista, who started the race from pole position, led all laps but three of the race. Unfortunately for him that included the very last lap, when under pressure from Simoncelli he made a mistake and went wide around the corner, allowing his rival through.

Bautista managed to close the gap and crossed the finish line just four hundredths of a second behind Simoncelli.

Barbera ended up over eleven seconds behind in third, with Debon ten seconds further back in fourth.

Next on the finish line came the Aprilias of Thomas Luthi and Mattia Pasini, who both took advantage of the retirement of Kallio, who was leading them until his mechanical failure on lap 19.

Gilera's Roberto Locatelli and Honda's Yuki Takahashi made a great start from eleventh and seventh respectively to find themselves in third and fourth after the first corner.

However, while fighting on the first lap for fourth position after being both overtaken by Simoncelli, Takahashi hit Locatelli who crashed out and walked away, while the Japanese went through the gravel trap, rejoined the race in a lowly 23rd, and classified 12th.

CLASSIFIED:

Pos  Rider             Bike          Time
 1.  Marco Simoncelli  Gilera   41:01.859
 2.  Alvaro Bautista   Aprilia  +   0.039
 3.  Hector Barbera    Aprilia  +  11.291
 4.  Alex Debon        Aprilia  +  21.373
 5.  Thomas Luthi      Aprilia  +  26.621
 6.  Mattia Pasini     Aprilia  +  26.720
 7.  Hiroshi Aoyama    KTM      +  35.818
 8.  Hector Faubel     Aprilia  +  36.321
 9.  Julian Simon      KTM      +  36.964
10.  Lukas Pesek       Aprilia  +  41.237
11.  R.Wilairot        Honda    +  52.391
12.  Yuki Takahashi    Honda    +  56.656
13.  Alex Baldolini    Aprilia  +  59.282
14.  Manuel Poggiali   Gilera   +1:02.503
15.  Fabrizio Lai      Gilera   +1:02.656
16.  Eugene Laverty    Aprilia  +1:07.418
17.  Russell Gomez     Aprilia  +   1 Lap
18.  D.T.Pradita       Yamaha   +   1 Lap

NOT CLASSIFIED/RETIREMENTS:

     Rider             Bike       Laps
     Mika Kallio       KTM          19
     Imre Toth         Aprilia       9
     Karel Abraham     Aprilia       7
     Aleix Espargaro   Aprilia       2
     Daniel Arcas      Honda         2
     R.Locatelli       Gilera        0

FASTEST LAP: Bautista, 1:46.143 on lap 21