Moto2 Catalunya: Marquez dominates for home victory
Alex Marquez rushed to his stand of fans to celebrate an incredibly dominant performance, where he lead from lights to flag at the Catalan Moto2 Grand Prix.
The EG 0,0 Marc VDS team were given a win for their 250th grand prix start after Marquez was untouchable after closing out Tom Luthi in the first corner.
The Spaniard then vanished with his lead of 3.5s enough to suck up a minor wobble, with his brother Marc rushing to congratulate him after the race.
Mattia Pasini gave chase but was too far behind after moving into second, where he stayed for Italtrans, creating his own gap back to Luthi once ahead for back-to-back podiums following his Mugello win last weekend.
The Italian rued his choice of a hard rear tyre which prevented him catching in the closing stages with less grip.
Interwetten rider Luthi made gains in the championship in third, now with 116 points, just seven behind Franco Morbidelli on 123 at the top of the standings.
Miguel Oliveira battled hard with his Swiss rival before crossing the line fourth, with Lorenzo Baldassarri, who had started third, recovering from a poor start which saw him drop to seventh on lap one to bounce back to fifth for Forward.
Both the Italian and Oliveira fought their way past a lacklustre Morbidelli, who could only manage sixth as his team-mate collected victory.
Jorge Navarro didn't quite have enough in the tank to mount a challenge on the Italian and was next to cross the finish in seventh for Gresini as top rookie.
A two second gap ensued before Fabio Quartararo stole eighth with another strong performance from a rookie rider, he battle to the front and led the chasing group over the line for his best finish since joining Pons HP 40.
He was closely followed by Tech 3's Xavi Vierge, a brave ninth as he returned to race action after missing Mugello following a heavy qualifying crash. Hazifh Syahrin collected a top ten finish after making up a massive thirteen places on his grid position for Petronas Raceline Malaysia.
Taka Nakagami (Idemitsu Honda Team Asia) had lead the chasing group for the longest before being shuffled down to eleventh with Simone Corsi the top Speed Up in twelfth.
SAG rider Isaac Vinales took the chequered flag 13th , Pecco Bagnaia (Sky Rcaing Team VR46) was just behind in 14th, as Andrea Locatelli did just enough to be ahead of Yonny Hernandez to collect the final point for Italtrans.
Tetsuta Nagashima was the first faller at turn ten on lap one but re-joined to finish the race. Tarran Mackenzie was the next to exit. Sandro Cortses also fell, meaning there were no Suter bikes in play at the end of the race.
Stefano Manzi pitted with eight laps left to run with tyre issues and Marcel Schrotter crashed on the final lap after being caught out by Nakagami's wobble ahead of him.
Luca Marini missed the race after withdrawing from the action before qualifying.
