Moto2: Dovizioso wins, Lorenzo crashes

Lorenzo was another of the many riders to crash in the sodden conditions, and the reigning champion was unable to rejoin.

De Angelis had eased away from Dovizioso and Lorenzo in the opening stages, with the latter pair swapping places on lap two when Dovizioso had a major twitch through Goddards.

Although Lorenzo could not close on de Angelis, he remained within a couple of seconds of the leader until suffering a violent high-side at Coppice on lap 10. He was unhurt and attempted to rejoin. but his bike could not be shifted from the gravel trap.

Lorenzo's departure was the cue for Dovizioso to begin pressuring de Angelis. The pair swapped fastest laps for the remainder of the race, with Dovizioso getting significantly closer to de Angelis when the leader was blocked in traffic with three laps left.

De Angelis still looked secure in the lead until the penultimate lap, when he fell near the bottom of the Craner Curves.

The lead duo's advantage over the rest of the field was so great that de Angelis was able to rejoin and still take second - 22 seconds behind the victorious Dovizioso, but 40 seconds clear of third-placed Hiroshi Aoyama.

Alvaro Bautista would have been in line to inherit third when Lorenzo retired, if he hadn't crashed at Coppice two laps before Lorenzo's similar accident.

Aoyama therefore came through to take the place, having resisted pressure from Julian Simon until the Repsol Honda rider had a low-side at Coppice eight laps from the end. Simon recovered to take seventh.

Yuki Takahashi stepped up to challenge Aoyama, but missed out on third by 0.2 seconds.

Mika Kallio dropped from fifth to sixth with a last lap fall, moving Shuhei Aoyama into the top five.

Thai rider Ratthapark Willairot took a career-best eighth, ahead of wildcard rider Dan Linfoot and Karel Abraham, with everyone from seventh-placed Simon onwards lapped at least once.

Given the appalling conditions, the race saw fewer accidents than had been feared. But frontrunner Hector Barbera failed to finish after three separate falls in the early laps.

Marco Simoncelli crashed his Gilera when holding fifth early on, while his teammate Roberto Locatelli also fell when 12th - both without injury.

Classified:

Pos  Rider             Bike         Time
 1.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda        48:40.173
 2.  Alex de Angelis   Aprilia      +  22.102
 3.  Hiroshi Aoyama    KTM          +1:03.137
 4.  Yuki Takahashi    Honda        +1:03.370
 5.  Shuhei Aoyama     Honda        +1:25.269
 6.  Mika Kallio       KTM          +2:07.333
 7.  Julian Simon      Honda        +   1 lap
 8.  R.Wilairot        Honda        +   1 lap
 9.  Dan Linfoot       Aprilia      +   1 lap
10.  Karel Abraham     Aprilia      +   1 lap
11.  Fabrizio Lai      Aprilia      +   1 lap
12.  Dirk Heidolf      Aprilia      +   1 lap
13.  Taro Sekiguchi    Aprilia      +   1 lap
14.  Alex Baldolini    Aprilia      +   1 lap
15.  Imre Toth         Aprilia      +   1 lap
16.  Efren Vazquez     Aprilia      +  2 laps
17.  Toby Markham      Yamaha       +  2 laps

Not classified:

     Rider             Bike         Laps
     Aleix Espargaro   Aprilia      23
     R.Locatelli       Gilera       14
     Jules Cluzel      Aprilia      14
     Jorge Lorenzo     Aprilia      10
     Thomas Luthi      Aprilia      10
     Marco Simoncelli  Gilera       9
     Alvaro Bautista   Aprilia      8
     Eugene Laverty    Honda        6
     Hector Barbera    Aprilia      5