Emilia Romagna Moto2: Bastianini wins shortened race

The original race only ran for six full laps when spots of rain forced the red flag to be flown, with Bastianini having taken the lead the tour before.

The second start had to be delayed owing to worsening rain with the entire field still on slicks, and there was a further delay of around 15 minutes before a 10-lap restart got underway.

Bastianini, who is set to step up to MotoGP next season with the Avintia squad, was jumped by Marini off the line but the Italtrans rider aggressively tried to take the lead back at Turn 4 and forced both wide - allowing Xavi Vierge on the Petronas Sprinta bike to hit the front.

Vierge was overhauled by Bastianini through the fast Curvone right-hander at Turn 11, with world championship leader Marini losing spots as his decision to stick with the harder rubber he used for the original start looked to be backfiring.

Bastianini immediately put a second between himself and the chasing Vierge, with Marco Bezzecchi on the sister VR46 bike working his way up to the back of the podium battle in fourth having elected to switch to a soft tyre for the restart.

He found himself in second on lap six when Marcel Schrotter forced both himself and Vierge out wide at the Turn 8 Quercia corner on lap six.

Vierge's race would last just one more corner as Schrotter clattered into him up the inside of the Tramonto right-hander and sent him into retirement.

With Bezzecchi and Marc VDS' Sam Lowes moving ahead of Schrotter, Bastianini came under serious threat in the closing stages.

Bastianini's lead came down from over a second to eight tenths on the eighth lap, with the gap dipping underneath six tenths at one stage.

But the Italtrans rider held sway and led Bezzecchi across the line by 0.720 seconds to move to five points off championship leader Marini.

Lowes completed the podium after an early tussle with Marini, while Schrotter rounded out the top five on his Intact GP machine.

Petronas Sprinta's Jake Dixon scored his first top six finish in Moto2, beating Speed Up's Jorge Navarro and Fabio Di Giannantonio, the sister Intact GP bike of Tom Luthi and Pons' Hector Garzo - who was promoted a place after Nicolo Bulega (Gresini) was docked a place for exceeding track limits on the last lap.

Ajo KTM's Jorge Martin was forced to miss the second Misano round after once again testing positive for COVID-19. He was replaced by Mattia Pasini, who just missed the points in 16th.

Moto2 Emilia Romagna results - 10 laps