Marc Marquez slashes Stefan Bradl's Moto2 points lead with Indianapolis win

The 18-year-old Spaniard failed to make the most of his pole position and ran third during the early stages behind Bradley Smith - who jumped into the lead at the first corner - and Simone Corsi.

But steadily he picked off the pair, slipstreaming past Smith's Tech 3 along the start/finish straight on the second lap and then spending only six more tours behind Corsi's Ioda FTR before repeating the move.

After that the Catalunya Suter rider was able to pull away and went on to take his fifth win of the year - and his fourth in the last five races - by 1.889s.

Behind him the order never stopped changing with the battle for second initially being disputed by Corsi, Smith, Andrea Iannone's Speed Master Suter, Esteve Rabat's Blusens FTR and Scott Redding's Marc VDS Suter.

With Corsi steadily falling back, Iannone looked the most likely threat to Marquez, but the Italian slid wide at Turn 1 on lap 14 and slipped back to fourth spot behind Rabat and Pol Espargaro, who had closed in on the podium battle at one third distance.

Moto2 rookie Espargaro - who lay only 23rd in the championship coming into the race - took just a few more laps to stick his Speed Up FTR inside Rabat to grab second and went on to claim his maiden podium finish in the class.

Rabat remained on his tail to the finish and took his own best finish in the category. Smith and Redding were next up, the pair closing in on the rostrum battle by the finish.

Bradl, who had started way down in 22nd after a problematic time in practice and qualifying, produced the ride of the race on his Kiefer Kalex. The German lay only 20th at the end of the first lap, but preserved his tyres early in the race and was able to pounce later on as others ran into trouble with them.

The championship leader passed Dominique Aegerter to move into the top 10 at half-distance and continued his rise by passing Ioda team-mates Corsi and Mattia Pasini, Julian Simon's Aspar Suter and then Iannone to make it up to sixth by the flag.

Pasini finished eighth ahead of Redding's team-mate Mika Kallio and the Pons Kalex of Espargaro's older brother Aleix, while Iannone fell back to 11th.

Corsi was among the worst affected by tyre troubles, the Italian almost crashing twice in a lap after losing the lead to Marquez. He slipped back to 14th by the finish, three places ahead of Thomas Luthi - another man who ended the first lap inside the top five.


Pos  Rider                Team/Bike                    Resultt/Gap
 1.  Marc Marquez         Catalunya Suter               45m50.601s
 2.  Pol Espargaro        Speed Up FTR                    + 1.889s
 3.  Esteve Rabat         Blusens FTR                     + 2.310s
 4.  Bradley Smith        Tech 3                          + 3.389s
 5.  Scott Redding        Marc VDS Suter                  + 5.674s
 6.  Stefan Bradl         Kiefer Kalex                    + 9.134s
 7.  Julian Simon         Aspar Suter                     + 9.347s
 8.  Mattia Pasini        Ioda FTR                       + 15.010s
 9.  Mika Kallio          Marc VDS Suter                 + 15.031s
10.  Aleix Espargaro      Pons Kalex                     + 15.339s
11.  Andrea Iannone       Speed Master Suter             + 17.447s
12.  Dominique Aegerter   Technomag-CIP Suter            + 21.727s
13.  Xavier Simeon        Tech 3                         + 24.279s
14.  Simone Corsi         Ioda FTR                       + 25.714s
15.  Alex de Angelis      JIR Motobi                     + 26.894s
16.  Jules Cluzel         Forward Suter                  + 27.375s
17.  Thomas Luthi         Interwetten Suter              + 27.546s
18.  Jordi Torres         Aspar Suter                    + 27.764s
19.  Ricard Cardus        QMMF Moriwaki                  + 27.946s
20.  Michele Pirro        Gresini Moriwaki               + 29.362s
21.  Randy Krummenacher   Kiefer Kalex                   + 31.701s
22.  Claudio Corti        Italtrans Suter                + 32.030s
23.  Raffaele de Rosa     Forward Suter                  + 32.100s
24.  Max Neukirchner      MZ                             + 35.387s
25.  Yuki Takahashi       Gresini Moriwaki               + 37.801s
26.  Anthony West         MZ                             + 42.146s
27.  Mike di Meglio       Tech 3                         + 53.491s
28.  Martin Cardenas      Blusens FTR                    + 58.947s
29.  JD Beach             Castello FTR                 + 1m04.334s
30.  Valentin Debise      Speed Up FTR                 + 1m12.230s
31.  Jake Gagne           GP Tech FTR                  + 1m12.503s
32.  Robertino Pietri     Italtrans Suter              + 1m15.177s
33.  Santiago Hernandez   SAG FTR                      + 1m15.899s
34.  Alex Baldolini       Pons Kalex                   + 1m37.102s
35.  Mashel Al Naimi      QMMF Moriwaki                    + 1 lap

Retirements

     Ratthapak Wilairot   SAG FTR                          21 laps       
     Carmelo Morales      La Torre Moriwaki                15 laps       
     Kenny Noyes          Avintia FTR                       7 laps