Moto2: Dovizioso beats Lorenzo to victory

The race was a repeat of the last GP in Jerez, with the three fighting for the lead throughout the entire race and Lorenzo eventually winning. The result, however, was different this time around, with Lorenzo losing for the first time this season.

Dovizioso made a good getaway from pole position, and in the first couple of laps built a 1.6-second gap over Bautista. In the following two laps the Spaniard managed to close the gap and overtook the Italian.

The two riders built a bit of a gap over Lorenzo, but then Lorenzo started setting a series of fastest laps, progressively closing the gap to the leading pair.

On lap 13 Lorenzo took the lead by overtaking both Bautista and Dovizioso under braking, went a bit wide and when rejoining the racing line he and Dovizioso touched slightly, luckily with no consequences.

Most of the remaining laps were an affair between Lorenzo and Dovizioso, with Bautista going wide on a turn and losing touch with the leading pair. However, the gap was made up in time for the last two laps.

At the beginning of the last lap Lorenzo led Dovizioso and Bautista. Dovizioso made a mistake and it looked like it was going to be another Lorenzo victory, but Dovizioso managed to get back all over Lorenzo and overtook him under breaking some three corners from the end.

The pair touched a bit again with no consequences, and on the last corner Bautista overtook Lorenzo for second. However, he had to brake in order not to touch Dovizioso, allowing Lorenzo to regain second place and Dovizioso to win.

"It was a great race," commented Dovizioso. "I needed it, after being unable to fight for victory in many races last year. Here we did it, after getting close to do it in Jerez, but here we were closer in the last corners.

"It was really tough because in that braking spot I didn't feel I did too well, but Lorenzo didn't brake at the limit and I managed to get inside. In the last two corners I knew he was trying to cross the lines but I kept a tight line and tried to get off the corner as fast as possible.

"It was a strange race because we had no grip either in front nor in the back. But it was good," concluded the Honda rider.

Best of the rest was Alex de Angelis in fourth, who was never far from the leading trio but never managed to be in contention.

Thomas Luthi took fifth, Mika Kallio sixth, and Julian Simon seventh. Hector Barbera, Marco Simoncelli and Fabrizio Lai rounded up the top ten.    

Pos  Rider             Bike           Time
 1.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda     39:31.153
 2.  Jorge Lorenzo     Aprilia     + 0.103
 3.  Alvaro Bautista   Aprilia     + 0.318
 4.  Alex de Angelis   Aprilia     + 4.894
 5.  Thomas Luthi      Aprilia    + 19.755
 6.  Mika Kallio       KTM        + 22.946
 7.  Julian Simon      Honda      + 23.283
 8.  Hector Barbera    Aprilia    + 47.678
 9.  Marco Simoncelli  Gilera     + 58.482
10.  Fabrizio Lai      Aprilia    + 58.734
11.  Aleix Espargaro   Aprilia  + 1:08.588
12.  Karel Abraham     Aprilia  + 1:09.032
13.  Dirk Heidolf      Aprilia  + 1:10.005
14.  Alex Baldolini    Aprilia  + 1:14.509
15.  R.Wilairot        Honda    + 1:17.732
16.  Shuhei Aoyama     Honda    + 1:28.469
17.  Eugene Laverty    Honda    + 1:49.828

Did not finish:

     Imre Toth         Aprilia
     Arturo Tizon      Aprilia
     Jules Cluzel      Aprilia
     Hiroshi Aoyama    KTM
     Taro Sekiguchi    Aprilia
     Anthony West      Aprilia
     Yuki Takahashi    Honda