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Moto2: Bradl runs away with Qatar Moto2

Stefan Bradl dominated the Moto2 season-opener in Qatar, leaving a spectacular battle for second place in his wake

Just as Nico Terol had done in the preceding 125cc event, Bradl surged away from pole position and never looked back. Although his performance was not quite as crushing as Terol's had been in the smaller class, Bradl got his lead up to seven seconds for a while and crossed the line 4.3s in front of the pack, having been in a class of his own.

Andrea Iannone battled through from 16th on the grid to take an excellent second place, pushing Tom Luthi back to third.

Alex de Angelis also mounted a late charge to grab fourth from long-time podium contender Yuki Takahashi, as the riders in second through fifth places battled all the way to the flag.

Simone Corsi fended off Jules Cluzel and Michele Pirro to take sixth, while Bradley Smith hung on to ninth on his Moto2 debut - leading home last year's championship runner-up Julian Simon and ex-MotoGP rider Aleix Espargaro.

Front-row qualifier Marc Marquez tumbled down the order at the start, quickly fought back from 11th to sixth, but then crashed out on lap four.

Another man to fall early was regular frontrunner Scott Redding, who rejoined and battled to 31st with a damaged bike.

Results - 20 laps:

Pos  Rider                  Team/Bike               Time/Gap
 1.  Stefan Bradl           Kiefer Kalex          40m38.549s
 2.  Andrea Iannone         Speed Master Suter      + 4.330s
 3.  Thomas Luthi           Interwetten Suter       + 5.137s
 4.  Alex De Angelis        JiR Motobi              + 5.925s
 5.  Yuki Takahashi         Gresini Moriwaki        + 6.621s
 6.  Simone Corsi           Ioda FTR               + 14.217s
 7.  Jules Cluzel           Forward Suter          + 14.257s
 8.  Michele Pirro          Gresini Moriwaki       + 14.501s
 9.  Bradley Smith          Tech 3                 + 18.910s
10.  Julian Simon           Aspar Suter            + 19.174s
11.  Aleix Espargaro        Pons Kalex             + 19.442s
12.  Yonny Hernandez        Blusens FTR            + 20.830s
13.  Dominique Aegerter     Technomag-CIP Suter    + 20.837s
14.  Esteve Rabat           Blusens FTR            + 20.855s
15.  Max Neukirchner        MZ                     + 26.803s
16.  Axel Pons              Pons Kalex             + 27.295s
17.  Ricard Cardus          QMMF Moriwaki          + 28.080s
18.  Kenan Sofuoglu         Technomag-CIP Suter    + 28.212s
19.  Mike di Meglio         Tech 3                 + 34.939s
20.  Mika Kallio            Marc VDS Suter         + 34.962s
21.  Claudio Corti          Italtrans Suter        + 37.982s
22.  Pol Espargaro          Speed Up FTR           + 43.491s
23.  Valentin Debise        Speed Up FTR           + 43.659s
24.  Kenny Noyes            Avintia FTR            + 47.476s
25.  Xavier Simeon          Tech 3                 + 47.755s
26.  Javier Fores           Aspar Suter            + 50.355s
27.  Randy Krummenache      Kiefer Kalex           + 50.544s
28.  Alex Baldolini         Forward Suter        + 1m04.879s
29.  Robertino Pietri       Italtrans Suter      + 1m09.672s
30.  Raffaele de Rosa       G22 Moriwaki         + 1m09.781s
31.  Scott Redding          Marc VDS Suter       + 1m23.743s
32.  Nasser Hasan Al Malki  QMMF Moriwaki        + 1m39.105s

Retirements:

     Ratthapark Wilairot    SAG FTR                  10 laps
     Kev Coghlan            Castello FTR              6 laps
     Marc Marquez           Repsol Suter              4 laps
     Santiago Hernandez     SAG FTR                   4 laps
     Anthony West           MZ                        4 laps
     Mattia Pasini          Ioda FTR                  3 laps
     Mashel Al Naimi        QMMF Moriwaki             0 laps

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