Moto2: Simoncelli wins at the Sachsenring

But it was a short drizzle that left the track dry by the time the 19-lap race was re-started half an hour later, with all riders starting on slick tyres except for Karel Abraham, whose gamble on wets didn't pay off.

Gilera's Simoncelli dropped down to third from pole at the start, but Hector Barbera's Pepe Aprilia was soon overtaken on the first lap, after which the Italian made up a small gap to Alex Debon (Blusens Aprilia).

The reigning champion took the lead from the Spaniard on lap 8, when the pair had opened up a gap of more than 4.5 seconds over the rest of the field.

The top two positions didn't change to the end of the race and the gap between them was never greater than half a second, but Debon risked to lose second when the group of riders behind them, fighting hard for the last podium place, caught Debon and finished just half a tenth behind him.

The man leading that pack was Alvaro Bautista (Aspar Aprilia), who finished ahead of Hiroshi Aoyama (Scot Honda) and Barbera in fifth. Mattia Pasini should have finished with this bunch, had he not crashed his Toth Aprilia with less than three laps to go.

Hector Faubel thus took sixth with his Honda SAG, ahead of the Aprilias of Aleix Espargaro (Balatonring) and Tomas Luthi (Emmi).

Italians Raffaele de Rosa (Scot Honda) and Roberto Locatelli (Gilera) round up the top ten.

Ratthapark Wilairot (Thai Honda), who was involved in a crash with Alex Baldolini (WTR Aprilia) and Imre Toth (Toth Aprilia) at the start of the interrupted race, did not take the start.

CLASSIFIED:

Pos  Rider             Bike     Time
 1.  Marco Simoncelli  Gilera   27m11.034s
 2.  Alex Debon        Aprilia  +   0.479s
 3.  Alvaro Bautista   Aprilia  +   0.528s
 4.  Hiroshi Aoyama    Honda    +   0.866s
 5.  Hector Barbera    Aprilia  +   1.260s
 6.  Hector Faubel     Honda    +   5.972s
 7.  Aleix Espargaro   Aprilia  +   8.721s
 8.  Thomas Luthi      Aprilia  +   8.762s
 9.  Raffaele De Rosa  Honda    +  19.176s
10.  R.Locatelli       Gilera   +  27.950s
11.  Alex Baldolini    Aprilia  +  29.601s
12.  Lukas Pesek       Aprilia  +  38.299s
13.  Shoya Tomizawa    Honda    +  51.940s
14.  Jules Cluzel      Aprilia  +  52.919s
15.  Bastien Chesaux   Honda    +1m06.786s
16.  Axel Pons         Aprilia  +1m20.573s
17.  Toby Markham      Aprilia  + 1 lap
18.  Imre Toth         Aprilia  + 1 lap
19.  Joakim Stensmo    Honda    + 2 laps
20.  Valentin Debise   Honda    + 4 laps

NOT CLASSIFIED/RETIREMENTS:

     Rider             Bike      Laps
     Mattia Pasini     Aprilia    16
     Mike Di Meglio    Aprilia    16
     Karel Abraham     Aprilia     8
     Vladimir Leonov   Aprilia     0
     R.Wilairot        Honda      DNS

FASTEST LAP: Bautista, 1m24.552s on lap 19