Moto2: Bautista takes stunning victory
Alvaro Bautista took a stunning victory in the 250cc Portuguese Grand Prix that saw him claw back to the lead from falling to 12th place after the first lap
The Spaniard started the race from the sixth spot, but a bad start saw him dropping outside the top ten. At the beginning of lap 6 he was already in seventh place, and in the space of two more laps he was third.
Within six more laps the Aprilia rider made up a 3.2 second gap to championship leader Jorge Lorenzo (also on Aprilia), who was running in second place behind pole setter Andrea Dovizioso's Honda.
On lap 16 Bautista overtook first Lorenzo and then Dovizioso with two clean moves. The Italian managed to stay with Bautista for a few laps, while Lorenzo was content with settling for third and did not challenge the two men in front.
In the last laps Dovizioso gave up all hopes of winning the race and let Bautista win with a gap over four seconds.
Lorenzo finished third 1.7 seconds behind Dovizioso, with the Aprilia of Thomas Luthi taking fourth a further six seconds behind.
Hector Barbera, who was third until Bautista overtook him on lap 8, managed to finish fifth by beating the sister Aprilia of Alex de Angelis on the line.
Gilera's Marco Simoncelli finished in seventh, followed by Julian Simon 30 seconds behind the winner.
The next rider to take the flag was Fabrizio Lai, over 40 seconds behind Simon. Karel Abraham rounds up the top ten.
The KTMs had a disastrous race with both bikes retiring with mechanical problems.
On lap 5 it was Mika Kallio's turn of withdrawing from third place, while Hiroshi Aoyama's engine sized with three laps to go when the Japanese was in 4th place.
Pos | Driver | Car/Engine | Laps | Time/Delay |
1 | Alvaro Bautista | Aprilia | 26 | 43:56.458 |
2 | Andrea Dovizioso | Honda | 26 | 4.367 |
3 | Jorge Lorenzo | Aprilia | 26 | 6.148 |
4 | Thomas Luthi | Aprilia | 26 | 12.685 |
5 | Hector Barbera | Aprilia | 26 | 13.411 |
6 | Alex de Angelis | Aprilia | 26 | 13.440 |
7 | Marco Simoncelli | Gilera | 26 | 30.322 |
8 | Julian Simon | Honda | 26 | 30.634 |
9 | Fabrizio Lai | Aprilia | 26 | 1:12.253 |
10 | Karel Abraham | Aprilia | 26 | 1:12.319 |
11 | Dirk Heidolf | Aprilia | 26 | 1:14.060 |
12 | Aleix Espargaro | Aprilia | 26 | 1:14.159 |
13 | Jules Cluzel | Aprilia | 26 | 1:14.575 |
14 | Eugene Laverty | Honda | 26 | 1:30.978 |
15 | Imre Toth | Aprilia | 25 | 1 Lap |
16 | Alvaro Molina | Aprilia | 25 | 1 Lap |
17 | Chow Ho Wan | Aprilia | 24 | 2 Laps |
- | Efren Vazquez | Aprilia | 23 | Retirement |
- | Ratthapark Wilairot | Honda | 23 | Retirement |
- | Hiroshi Aoyama | KTM | 22 | Retirement |
- | Shuhei Aoyama | Honda | 18 | Retirement |
- | Dan Linfoot | Aprilia | 18 | Retirement |
- | Alex Baldolini | Aprilia | 7 | Retirement |
- | Mika Kallio | KTM | 4 | Retirement |
- | Yuki Takahashi | Honda | 2 | Retirement |
- | Roberto Locatelli | Gilera | 1 | Retirement |
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