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Moto2: Takahashi takes maiden victory

Yuki Takahashi benefited from a ride-through penalty for long-time leader Andrea Iannone to take his and the Tech 3 team's maiden Moto2 victory at the Catalan Grand Prix at Barcelona

The Japanese rider ran third on the opening lap as Thomas Luthi and Toni Elias fought for the lead initially and pole-sitter Iannone dropped to fourth.

Behind them though, a first corner collision triggered by Alex Debon's Ajo-run FTR knocked off seven riders, including championship challenger Shoya Tomizawa and Mike di Meglio.

As the leaders approached the scene on the second lap, yellow flags were being waved, but Iannone still overtook Takahashi for third - a move that would come back to haunt him later on.

Initially Iannone was instructed by race control, and by the Fimco Speed Up team, to hand back the position to Takahashi, who had made his way back up to second after dropping as low as fourth early on.

However, he did not, leading officials to hand him a ride-through penalty, which he took while four seconds in front on lap 15, dropping him outside the points.

This left Takahashi in a comfortable lead and he duly rounded off the remaining eight laps to seal his first grand prix win in any class for four years by 5.037 seconds.

Behind him Luthi and Julian Simon had a terrific scrap for second that went in favour of the Interwetten Moriwaki rider. Luthi and Aspar Suter rider Simon now lie second and third in the championship.

Karel Abraham took his best finish in grand prix racing with fourth place on his Cardion FTR, the Czech rider battling for the second half of the race with Simone Corsi and Toni Elias, but breaking clear of the pair with a couple of laps left.

Elias (Gresini Moriwaki) dived inside Corsi's JiR Motobi at La Caixa on the final lap to steal fifth and keep his championship lead intact, even if Luthi's result allowed him to reduce the Spaniard's advantage from 24 points to 17.

Kenny Noyes equalled his best finish in Moto2 with seventh on his Jack & Jones Promo Harris, but came under a lot of late pressure from grand prix debutant Carmelo Morales late on.

Morales was the victim of an horrific accident on the run to the finish line after the front tyre on his Pons Kalex bike briefly touched Noyes's rear. The touch launched Morales and bike into the air, the rider being hit twice by his machine, which then flew into the catch-fencing opposite the finish line.

An initial message from race officials indicated that Morales was: "deemed to be okay by the medical centre, but remaining under observation."

A rule that mandates that a rider must be on his bike to appear in the race results meant that despite crossing the line, the Spaniard was not classified.

The remaining top 10 places therefore went to Fonsi Nieto (Holiday Gym Moriwaki), Anthony West (MZ) and Alex de Angelis (Scot), who moves up to MotoGP for the next race in Germany. Iannone recovered to 13th place following his penalty.

Pos  Rider                Bike             Time/Gap
 1.  Yuki Takahashi       Tech 3         41m42.451s
 2.  Thomas Luthi         Moriwaki         + 5.037s
 3.  Julian Simon         Suter            + 5.200s
 4.  Karel Abraham        FTR              + 6.706s
 5.  Toni Elias           Moriwaki         + 7.369s
 6.  Simone Corsi         Motobi           + 7.414s
 7.  Kenny Noyes          Promo Harris    + 17.010s
 8.  Fonsi Nieto          Moriwaki        + 20.555s
 9.  Anthony West         MZ              + 21.001s
10.  Alex de Angelis      Force           + 21.369s
11.  Gabor Talmacsi       Speed Up        + 22.213s
12.  Yonny Hernandez      BQR             + 23.024s
13.  Andrea Iannone       Speed Up        + 25.297s
14.  Jules Cluzel         Suter           + 26.674s
15.  Yusuke Teshima       Motobi          + 26.796s
16.  Raffaele De Rosa     Tech 3          + 27.441s
17.  Arne Tode            Suter           + 27.674s
18.  Vladimir Ivanov      Moriwaki        + 35.193s
19.  Jordi Torres         Promo Harris    + 37.424s
20.  Valentin Debise      ADV             + 41.504s
21.  Joan Olive           Promo Harris    + 41.710s
22.  Claudio Corti        Suter           + 41.966s
23.  Ricard Cardus        Suter           + 49.224s
24.  Xavier Simeon        Moriwaki      + 1m03.470s
25.  Sergio Gadea         Pons Kalex    + 1m12.814s
26.  Mashel Al Naimi      BQR           + 1m22.796s

Retirements:

     Carmelo Morales      Pons Kalex    22 laps
     Bernat Martinez      Bimota        20 laps
     Alex Baldolini       ICP           19 laps
     Scott Redding        Suter         12 laps
     Ratthapark Wilairot  Bimota        9 laps
     Dani Rivas           Promo Harris  4 laps
     Shoya Tomizawa       Suter         4 laps
     Niccolo Canepa       Force         3 laps
     Lukas Pesek          Moriwaki      3 laps
     Vladimir Leonov      Suter         1 lap
     Dominique Aegerter   Suter         1 lap
     Hector Faubel        Suter         1 lap
     Robertino Pietri     Suter         0 laps
     Roberto Rolfo        Suter         0 laps
     Alex Debon           FTR           0 laps
     Mike di Meglio       Suter         0 laps

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