Moto2: Simoncelli beats Pasini in thriller

The two Italians exchanged position for the lead several times during the second half of the race but in the end it was the Gilera rider who took his third win of the season, setting the fastest lap of the race on the last lap as well.

On several occasions Pasini took the lead in to Turn 1, only for Simoncelli to regain it at Turn 3. Having tried the same manouvre on the penultimate lap, only to be thwarted again, Pasini waited until the third corner on the final lap but simply wasn't close enough to make a move.

The pair looked for a while as if they might be joined by title contender Alvaro Bautista, but the Spaniard had a big wobble in the Esses with five laps to go and settled for third in the end.

He was lucky to escape uninjured however after crashing spectacularly on the slowing down lap while performing a wheelie for the crowd.

Fourth was a distant Hiroshi Aoyama. The championship leader was in the mix for the lead in the early stages before getting embroiled in a fight for third with Bautista, Mike di Meglio and Hector Barbera.

Di Meglio clipped the rear tyre of the Japanese rider while trying to take fourth and the Scot Honda never seemed quite as quick after that. The Frenchman ran off the track but recovered to ninth.

Veteran Roberto Locatelli brought the sister Gilera home fifth after leading in the early stages - the first time the Italian had done so since 2006.

Raffale de Rosa took sixth position ahead of a fading Barbera, with Jule Cluzel, di Meglio and Hector Faubel completing the top ten.

The only other major incident was a crash between Karel Abraham and Thomas Luthi at the first corner - both riders emerging uninjured.

Pos Driver                  Bike               Time/Gap
 1. Marco Simoncelli        Gilera           41m06.490s
 2. Mattia Pasini           Aprilia             +0.684s
 3. Alvaro Bautista         Aprilia             +4.381s
 4. Hiroshi Aoyama          Honda               +8.746s
 5. Roberto Locatelli       Gilera              +9.721s
 6. Raffaele De Rosa        Honda              +10.870s
 7. Hector Barbera          Aprilia            +15.639s
 8. Jules Cluzel            Aprilia            +18.411s
 9. Mike di Meglio          Aprilia            +18.563s
10. Hector Faubel           Honda              +19.958s
11. Rutthapark Wilairot     Honda              +20.084s
12. Lukas Pesek             Aprilia            +30.632s
13. Shoya Tomizawa          Honda              +37.118s
14. Balazs Nemeth           Aprilia          +1m17.484s
15. Valentin Debise         Honda            +1m24.684s
16. Axel Pons               Aprilia          +1m25.132s
17. Imre Toth               Aprilia          +1m46.925s
18. Aitor Rodriguez         Aprilia          +1m52.465s
19. Vladimir Leonov         Aprilia          +1m59.794s

Retirements

    Bastien Chesaux         Honda               12 laps
    Alex Debon              Aprilia              9 laps
    Alex Baldolini          Aprilia              6 laps
    Toby Markham            Aprilia               1 lap
    Karel Abraham           Aprilia              0 laps
    Thomas Luthi            Aprilia              0 laps