Moto2: Lorenzo takes dominant victory

The Spaniard led into turn one and was never headed, extending his margin at around a second per lap, to take victory by 20 seconds over second place.

It extended Lorenzo's lead in the championship to 45 points over challenger Andrea Dovizioso, with just two rounds and 50 points remaining.

The battle for second place in the race was much closer, with a race-long fight for the position. Marco Simoncelli was an early contender before falling down the order to finish seventh, and Shuhei Aoyama looked like he might be the man until he almost fell exiting Honda Hairpin on lap eight, recovering to finish eighth.

It then became a battle between Alvaro Bautista, Andrea Dovizioso, Thomas Luthi and Hiroshi Aoyama. Dovizioso took over second after Shuhei Aoyama's moment, but lost the position to Bautista on the next lap, Bautista holding on to the position as the other diced behind him.

But with five laps remaining Luthi took second at Honda Hairpin, having just moved into third at Doohan Corner. Bautista repaid the favour to retake second on the next lap at Doohan, before swapping back again at Honda with Luthi back in second position.

Bautista and Dovizioso then both swept past Luthi into Doohan on lap 23, but the battle was still not over. On the final lap Dovizioso dived inside Bautista to take second at Honda Hairpin, only for Bautista to dive inside as they entered Lukey Heights.

From there Dovizioso couldn't get close enough to slipstream back ahead by the line, taking third just behind Bautista, while behind them Hiroshi Aoyama passed Luthi as they approached the finish to take fourth. Unfortunately for them, Lorenzo had crossed the finish line 20 seconds earlier.

A couple of contenders exited early, Hector Barbera out before the end of lap one while Mika Kallio crashed out at Honda Hairpin on lap two.

CLASSIFIED:

Pos  Rider             Make      Time
 1.  Jorge Lorenzo     Aprilia   39:25.727
 2.  Alvaro Bautista   Aprilia   +  19.634
 3.  Andrea Dovizioso  Honda     +  19.724
 4.  Hiroshi Aoyama    KTM       +  19.797
 5.  Thomas Luthi      Aprilia   +  20.066
 6.  Julian Simon      Honda     +  21.045
 7.  Marco Simoncelli  Gilera    +  32.960
 8.  Shuhei Aoyama     Honda     +  33.043
 9.  Alex de Angelis   Aprilia   +  33.051
10.  Yuki Takahashi    Honda     +  44.814
11.  R. Locatelli      Gilera    +  48.733
12.  Jules Cluzel      Aprilia   +  54.010
13.  Karel Abraham     Aprilia   +1:03.218
14.  Aleix Espargaro   Aprilia   +1:09.368
15.  Dirk Heidolf      Aprilia   +1:17.807
16.  Eugene Laverty    Honda     +1:21.239
17.  Fabrizio Lai      Aprilia   +1:31.245
18.  Taro Sekiguchi    Aprilia   +1:33.575
19.  R. Wilairot       Honda     +1:33.916
20.  Federico Sandi    Aprilia   +   1 lap

NOT CLASSIFIED/RETIREMENTS:

     Rider             Make      On Lap
     Alex Baldolini    Aprilia     19
     Imre Toth         Aprilia      6
     Efren Vazquez     Aprilia      4
     Mika Kallio       KTM          2
     Ho Wan Chow       Aprilia      2
     Hector Barbera    Aprilia      1