Moto2: Bautista takes dominant Estoril win

The Mapfre Aspar rider, who started the race from second on the grid, took the lead mid way through the first lap from poleman Marco Simoncelli and never looked back.

The Spaniard started opening a gap around lap six of the 26-lap race and widened it to almost ten seconds around lap 20, before easing out a bit towards the end of the race.

Metis Gilera's Simoncelli managed to keep second place but only just. He had a over five seconds over third-placed Mika Kallio around lap 12, but by the end of the race that advantage completely evaporated with the two bikes slightly clashing on the straight in the run up to the chequered flag.

Ultimately the Italian beat the Finn by just 0.013 seconds, however the Red Bull KTM rider can be content with leaving Portugal with the lead in the championship, after taking it from Mattia Pasini.

The Polaris World rider crashed in the gravel after coming together with KTM's Hiroshi Aoyama while fighting for sixth place on lap 21. The Italian rejoined the race, however he realised he had no more brakes just when he needed them.

That resulted in a major high-speed crash that destroyed Pasini's Aprilia, but thankfully the rider walked away with no injury.

Fourth position went to the Aprilia of Thomas Luthi, six seconds away from the podium, followed by Aoyama and Yuki Takahashi's Honda.

The top ten was completed by the KTM of Julian Simon and the Aprilias of Hector Barbera, Hector Faubel, and Lukas Pesek.

Lotus Aprilia's Alex Debon crashed out of third place on lap four.

CLASSIFIED:

Pos  Rider             Bike            Time
 1.  Alvaro Bautista   Aprilia    44:34.257   
 2.  Marco Simoncelli  Gilera    +    7.050
 3.  Mika Kallio       KTM       +    7.063
 4.  Thomas Luthi      Aprilia   +   12.998
 5.  Hiroshi Aoyama    KTM       +   14.666
 6.  Yuki Takahashi    Honda     +   18.498
 7.  Julian Simon      KTM       +   26.812
 8.  Hector Barbera    Aprilia   +   28.012
 9.  Hector Faubel     Aprilia   +   28.288
10.  Lukas Pesek       Aprilia   +   36.966
11.  Aleix Espargaro   Aprilia   +   38.296
12.  Alex Baldolini    Aprilia   +   52.070
13.  R.Wilairot        Honda     + 1:13.303
14.  Federico Sandi    Aprilia   + 1:17.592
15.  Eugene Laverty    Aprilia   + 1:21.363
16.  Karel Abraham     Aprilia   + 1:26.355
17.  Manuel Poggiali   Gilera    + 1:27.438
18.  Imre Toth         Aprilia   +    1 lap
19.  D.T.Pradita       Yamaha    +    1 lap

NOT CLASSIFIED/RETIREMENTS:

     Rider             Bike      On lap
     R.Locatelli       Gilera      24
     Mattia Pasini     Aprilia     21
     Russell Gomez     Aprilia     12
     Fabrizio Lai      Gilera       5
     Alex Debon        Aprilia      4
     Chow Ho Wan       Aprilia      2

FASTEST LAP: Bautista, 1:41.425	 on lap 8