Moto2: Simoncelli wins at the Sachsenring
Marco Simoncelli has won the shortened and delayed 250cc German Grand Prix, after rain interrupted the first start
But it was a short drizzle that left the track dry by the time the 19-lap race was re-started half an hour later, with all riders starting on slick tyres except for Karel Abraham, whose gamble on wets didn't pay off.
Gilera's Simoncelli dropped down to third from pole at the start, but Hector Barbera's Pepe Aprilia was soon overtaken on the first lap, after which the Italian made up a small gap to Alex Debon (Blusens Aprilia).
The reigning champion took the lead from the Spaniard on lap 8, when the pair had opened up a gap of more than 4.5 seconds over the rest of the field.
The top two positions didn't change to the end of the race and the gap between them was never greater than half a second, but Debon risked to lose second when the group of riders behind them, fighting hard for the last podium place, caught Debon and finished just half a tenth behind him.
The man leading that pack was Alvaro Bautista (Aspar Aprilia), who finished ahead of Hiroshi Aoyama (Scot Honda) and Barbera in fifth. Mattia Pasini should have finished with this bunch, had he not crashed his Toth Aprilia with less than three laps to go.
Hector Faubel thus took sixth with his Honda SAG, ahead of the Aprilias of Aleix Espargaro (Balatonring) and Tomas Luthi (Emmi).
Italians Raffaele de Rosa (Scot Honda) and Roberto Locatelli (Gilera) round up the top ten.
Ratthapark Wilairot (Thai Honda), who was involved in a crash with Alex Baldolini (WTR Aprilia) and Imre Toth (Toth Aprilia) at the start of the interrupted race, did not take the start.
CLASSIFIED: Pos Rider Bike Time 1. Marco Simoncelli Gilera 27m11.034s 2. Alex Debon Aprilia + 0.479s 3. Alvaro Bautista Aprilia + 0.528s 4. Hiroshi Aoyama Honda + 0.866s 5. Hector Barbera Aprilia + 1.260s 6. Hector Faubel Honda + 5.972s 7. Aleix Espargaro Aprilia + 8.721s 8. Thomas Luthi Aprilia + 8.762s 9. Raffaele De Rosa Honda + 19.176s 10. R.Locatelli Gilera + 27.950s 11. Alex Baldolini Aprilia + 29.601s 12. Lukas Pesek Aprilia + 38.299s 13. Shoya Tomizawa Honda + 51.940s 14. Jules Cluzel Aprilia + 52.919s 15. Bastien Chesaux Honda +1m06.786s 16. Axel Pons Aprilia +1m20.573s 17. Toby Markham Aprilia + 1 lap 18. Imre Toth Aprilia + 1 lap 19. Joakim Stensmo Honda + 2 laps 20. Valentin Debise Honda + 4 laps NOT CLASSIFIED/RETIREMENTS: Rider Bike Laps Mattia Pasini Aprilia 16 Mike Di Meglio Aprilia 16 Karel Abraham Aprilia 8 Vladimir Leonov Aprilia 0 R.Wilairot Honda DNS
FASTEST LAP: Bautista, 1m24.552s on lap 19
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