Moto2: Simoncelli claims first win of 2009

The Gilera rider, who only had a non-start, a retirement and a third place to show for his first three races of 2009, won an opening lap battle with Hiroshi Aoyama and then cruised away from the field to win by 18 seconds.

Simoncelli's winning margin was boosted by a string of accidents in his wake.

Lukas Pesek and Gabor Talmacsi's replacement Angel Rodriguez charged to second and third on the first lap. Rodriguez surged through from 16th on the grid on the Aspar bike Talmacsi vacated following a contractual dispute this week, only to crash on lap three. Moments later his sparring partner Pesek did likewise, although unlike Rodriguez he was able to re-mount his bike and continue.

Mattia Pasini was next to hold second place, but he too fell and had to retire early on.

Thomas Luthi and Alex Debon then established themselves in second and third, with the Spanish veteran edging closer to Luthi as the race progressed.

But before he could try a move for second, Debon lost control of his bike under braking and fell, bowling Luthi over as he slid into the gravel and taking both out. Debon rejoined briefly only for a second crash to end his afternoon shortly afterwards.

That incident moved Hector Faubel up to second, just ahead of Roberto Locatelli, who was not quite able to make it a Gilera one-two.

Poleman Alvaro Bautista tumbled down the order at the start and languished in 10th until the track began to dry a little. As his confidence increased, Bautista was able to charge through to fourth, ahead of Ratthapark Willairot, who claimed his best ever result in fifth.

Aoyama ran wide on the first lap dicing with Simoncelli and never got back into the lead fight, finishing eighth behind Raffaele de Rosa and the recovering Pesek. The result means Bautista takes a one point lead over Aoyama in the standings.

In a race littered with accidents, other notable incidents saw Alex Baldolini fall when running in a strong sixth place, and leading home rider Mike di Meglio crash at the final corner on lap 10.

Pos  Rider                Bike     Time
 1.  Marco Simoncelli     Gilera   49m07.591s
 2.  Hector Faubel        Honda    +  18.128s
 3.  Roberto Locatelli    Gilera   +  21.642s
 4.  Alvaro Bautista      Aprilia  +  31.087s
 5.  Ratthapark Wilairot  Honda    +  50.497s
 6.  Raffaele de Rosa     Honda    +  56.366s
 7.  Lukas Pesek          Aprilia  +1m16.025s
 8.  Hiroshi Aoyama       Honda    +1m22.882s
 9.  Imre Toth            Aprilia  +1m35.556s
10.  Vladimir Leonov      Aprilia  +1m47.990s
11.  Hector Barbera       Aprilia  +    1 lap
12.  Karel Abraham        Aprilia  +    1 lap
13.  Valentin Debise      Honda    +    1 lap
14.  Toby Markham         Honda    +    1 lap

Retirements:

     Alex Debon           Aprilia  21 laps
     Alex Baldolini       Aprilia  18 laps
     Thomas Luthi         Aprilia  18 laps
     Mike di Meglio       Aprilia  10 laps
     Mattia Pasini        Aprilia  4 laps
     Axel Pons            Aprilia  3 laps
     Aitor Rodriguez      Aprilia  3 laps
     Angel Rodriguez      Aprilia  2 laps
     Shoya Tomizawa       Honda    1 lap
     Bastien Chesaux      Honda    0 laps