Moto2: Elias relieves points pressure with win

The result was made all the sweeter by the fact that only one of Elias's key rivals finished as the race took an extraordinary toll on the established runners.

Simone Corsi, Luthi, Julian Simon, Alex Debon and Yuki Takahashi all fell off unprovoked in various accidents during the race.

The Gresini Moriwaki rider was bullied down the order in a chaotic start that witnessed yet another multi-bike shunt at the first corner - which among others, accounted for Joan Olive, Lukas Pesek and Raffaele de Rosa. But in typical fashion Elias responded quickly.

By lap 10 he had found his way to the front of a huge gaggle of bikes in pursuit of the two runaway Fimmco Speed Ups of Andrea Iannone and Gabor Talmasci, which led the race.

Talmasci took the early lead, but Iannone - seeking recompense for the win he should have taken in Barcelona (but for a penalty having passed under yellows) - quickly moved ahead of his team-mate and established a lead.

That lead initially looked unassailable, but Elias was closing fast.

As Talmacsi, the 2007 125cc German GP winner, faded along with his medium/hard rear Dunlop, so Elias appeared to get stronger, and having dispatched the Hungarian with ease, he set about Iannone.

On lap 24 Elias made his move, a clean one down the inside into Turn 1, and ensured that Iannone will have to wait just a little bit longer for his third Moto2 race win of the year. The Italian afterwards admitted that he simply didn't have rear tyre to defend the advances of the former MotoGP race-winner late-on.

With Corsi, who had followed Elias through the field, having fallen, an enormous battle behind him became the scrap for third.

It was only settled on the last lap when Roberto Rolfo made a daring move down the inside of the feisty Fonsi Nieto in to Turn 1 on the last lap. And while Nieto didn't give up without a fight, he couldn't prevent the Italian taking his first podium of the season.

Karel Abraham took a strong fifth position in yet another convincing performance, while Talmacsi eventually slipped to sixth.

Australia's Damian Cudlin, replacing Carmelo Morales who crashed so spectacularly in Barcelona, did well to finish seventh on the Pons bike ahead of Dominique Aegerter.

Stefan Bradl was another in with a shout of a strong finish before slipping back to ninth in the end, while Yonni Hernandez completed the top ten.

Pos  Rider                Bike             Time/Gap
 1.  Toni Elias           Moriwaki       41'57.745s
 2.  Andrea Iannone       Speed Up      +    3.297s
 3   Roberto Rolfo        Suter         +    6.574s
 4.  Fonsi Nieto          Moriwaki      +    6.781s
 5.  Karel Abraham        FTR           +    7.396s
 6.  Gabor Talmacsi       Speed Up      +    9.555s
 7   Damian Cudlin        Pons Kalex    +    9.697s
 8   Dominique Aegerter   Suter         +   11.373s
 9.  Stefan Bradl         Suter         +   13.152s
10.  Yonny Hernandez      BQR           +   13.726s
11   Alex Baldolini       ICP           +   15.802s
12.  Jules Cluzel         Suter         +   17.666s
13.  Anthony West         MZ            +   25.927s
14.  Vladimir Ivanov      Moriwaki      +   26.476s
15.  Xavier Simeon        Moriwaki      +   26.626s
16.  Valentin Debise      ADV           +   27.465s
17   Ratthapark Wilairot  Bimota        +   29.007s
18   Shoya Tomizawa       Suter         +   42.961s
19.  Yusuke Teshima       Motobi        +   43.141s
20   Niccolo Canepa       Force         +   43.277s
21.  Kenny Noyes          Promo Harris  +   43.580s
22.  Claudio Corti        Suter         +   44.171s
23.  Sascha Hommel        Kalex         +   52.382s
24   Vladimir Leonov      Suter         + 1m04.234s
25   Hector Faubel        Suter         + 1m19.211s
26.  Yannick Guerra       Moriwaki      + 1m23.078s
27.  Arne Tode            Suter         + 1m28.151s

Retirements:

     Mike di Meglio       Suter             28 laps
     Raffaele De Rosa     Tech 3            25 laps
     Robertino Pietri     Suter             24 laps
     Simone Corsi         Motobi            19 laps
     Mashel Al Naimi      BQR               17 laps
     Scott Redding        Suter             10 laps
     Alex Debon           FTR               10 laps
     Thomas Luthi         Moriwaki           9 laps
     Sergio Gadea         Pons Kalex         7 laps
     Julian Simon         Suter              3 laps
     Yuki Takahashi       Tech 3             1 laps
     Lukas Pesek          Moriwaki           0 laps
     Joan Olive           Promo Harris       0 laps
     Ricard Cardus        Bimota             0 laps