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Phillip Island Moto2: Marc Marquez takes title despite Pol Espargaro's win

Pol Espargaro did everything he could by dominating the Phillip Island Moto2 race, but third place for Marc Marquez clinched the world championship for the future Honda MotoGP rider

Marquez only needed two points from the final two rounds to secure the title.

But he did not look like he planned to take it easy as his Monlau Suter burst into the lead for a few yards at the start.

Espargaro's Pons Kalex slipped back from pole to fourth during the first lap, but by the end of lap two the Spaniard was in the lead.

Up to a second per lap faster than his rivals, Espargaro was unstoppable in the race and won by a huge 16 seconds.

Marquez had it all in hand, though. He spent most of the race sat in third place behind Scott Redding's Marc VDS Kalex.

Local favourite Anthony West joined them in the closing laps, as he rode a superb race for QMMF to break away from the large pack fighting for fourth.

With nothing to lose and Australian pride to uphold, West battled past before Marquez and Redding into second place in the closing laps.

Marquez sat back in fourth until the final two corners, when he showed just how easy he had been taking it by shooting past Redding, then coming within 0.026s of beating West over the line.

Dominique Aegerter eventually won the big dice fr fifth, ahead of Johann Zarco, Simone Corsi, Esteve Rabat, Randy Krummenacher and Takaaki Nakagami, who led much of lap one after a brilliant start. Mika Kallio was at the forefront of this group before a late clash with Corsi.

Second-row starter Tom Luthi drifted back then crashed, which was a relief for Andrea Iannone, his rival for third in the standings, who stopped with an apparent engine failure early on.

Results - 25 laps:

Pos  Rider                 Team/Bike                 Time/Gap
 1.  Pol Espargaro         Pons Kalex              39m26.486s
 2.  Anthony West          QMMF Speed Up            + 16.811s
 3.  Marc Marquez          Monlau Suter             + 16.837s
 4.  Scott Redding         Marc VDS Kalex           + 16.957s
 5.  Dominique Aegerter    Technomag-CIP Suter      + 26.018s
 6.  Johann Zarco          JIR Motobi               + 26.028s
 7.  Simone Corsi          Ioda FTR                 + 26.091s
 8.  Esteve Rabat          Pons Kalex               + 26.372s
 9.  Randy Krummenacher    Switzerland Kalex        + 26.474s
10.  Takaaki Nakagami      Italtrans Kalex          + 26.580s
11.  Jordi Torres          Aspar Suter              + 36.520s
12.  Bradley Smith         Tech 3                   + 36.565s
13.  Toni Elias            Italtrans Kalex          + 36.870s
14.  Xavier Simeon         Tech 3                   + 38.220s
15.  Mike di Meglio        Kiefer Kalex             + 44.350s
16.  Yuki Takahashi        Forward FTR              + 48.586s
17.  Ricard Cardus         Arguinano AJR            + 48.763s
18.  Nicolas Terol         Aspar Suter              + 48.768s
19.  Ratthapark Wilairot   Gresini Suter            + 52.487s
20.  Marcel Schrotter      SAG Bimota               + 52.569s
21.  Gino Rea              Gresini Suter            + 52.707s
22.  Tomoyoshi Koyama      Technomag-CIP Suter    + 1m12.087s
23.  Alessandro Andreozzi  Speed Master Speed Up  + 1m21.455s
24.  Elena Rosell          QMMF Speed Up              + 1 lap
25.  Marco Colandrea       SAG FTR                    + 1 lap

Retirements:

     Mika Kallio           Marc VDS Kalex             23 laps
     Axel Pons             Pons Kalex                 23 laps
     Julian Simon          Avintia Suter              23 laps
     Eric Granado          JIR Motobi                 23 laps
     Thomas Luthi          Paddock Suter              19 laps
     Andrea Iannone        Speed Master Speed Up       4 laps

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