Moto2: Simoncelli dominates in the rain

The Gilera rider immediately got accustomed to the difficult conditions and took full advantage of the RSA bike he has finally been given - the same used this year by his Aprilia rivals - to open up a seven-second gap in the first ten laps out of 29.

The Italian, who also dominated qualifying to take pole, didn't have a perfect start when he dropped to fourth place by the first corner, but by the end of the first lap he was already in the lead after overtaking Aprilia's Hector Barbera, Gilera's Fabrizio Lai, and KTM's Julian Simon.

From lap ten onwards Simoncelli maintained a steady gap over the trio comprising Barbera, Simon, and KTM's Mika Kallio, who before this race was the championship leader.

Making up ground on this pursuing group was Aprilia's Alvaro Bautista, who through a bad start dropped from fifth on the grid to 17th by the end of the first lap.

But after the initial laps the Spaniard started his recovery and with six laps to go - when Simoncelli began to control the race by slowing down the pace - he was in the fight for best of the rest, together with the aforementioned bunch and with Aprilia's Mattia Pasini.

In the end, Simoncelli took the chequered flag by a misleading 2.2 seconds over Barbera and Bautista.

Kallio dropped back a bit and finished fourth, 1.7 seconds behind the two Aprilias, with Simon fifth and Pasini sixth.

Aprilia's Thomas Luthi ended the race in seventh after going off on the first lap, one lap before Alex Debon crashed out of fifth place with his Aprilia.

Other crashes included Karel Abraham's Aprilia on lap four, Hiroshi Aoyama's KTM on lap 17 - the Japanese was fifth but rejoins with broken bodywork and classified eighth, Lukas Pesek's Aprilia on lap 20 and Federico Sandi's Aprilia on lap 23.

CLASSIFIED:

Pos  Rider             Bike     Time
 1.  Marco Simoncelli  Gilera   45:36.703   
 2.  Hector Barbera    Aprilia  +   2.257
 3.  Alvaro Bautista   Aprilia  +   2.423
 4.  Mika Kallio       KTM      +   4.150
 5.  Julian Simon      KTM      +   4.846
 6.  Mattia Pasini     Aprilia  +   8.132
 7.  Thomas Luthi      Aprilia  +  38.302
 8.  Hiroshi Aoyama    KTM      +  48.926
 9.  Yuki Takahashi    Honda    +  50.062
10.  R.Locatelli       Gilera   +  51.670
11.  Alex Baldolini    Aprilia  +1:08.796
12.  Fabrizio Lai      Gilera   +1:08.962
13.  Aleix Espargaro   Aprilia  +1:11.351
14.  Hector Faubel     Aprilia  +1:11.654
15.  Eugene Laverty    Aprilia  +1:13.856
16.  R.Wilairot        Honda    +1:29.976
17.  Imre Toth         Aprilia  + 1 Lap  
18.  Alen Gyorfi       Honda    + 1 Lap  
19.  D.T.Pradita       Yamaha   + 1 Lap  
20.  Toni Wirsing      Honda    + 2 Laps 

NOT CLASSIFIED/RETIREMENTS:

     Rider             Bike       Laps
     Federico Sandi    Aprilia     22
     Lukas Pesek       Aprilia     18
     Karel Abraham     Aprilia      3
     Alex Debon        Aprilia      3
     Manuel Poggiali   Gilera       0
     Russell Gomez     Aprilia      0

FASTEST LAP: Barbera, 1:32.551 on lap 29