Moto2 Misano: Aegerter keeps Luthi at bay for win, Morbidelli crashes out
Dominique Aegerter showed his skills in the wet to take his first win since 2014, and the first for Suter since the same year, holding firm under pressure from Tom Luthi for victory in the Moto2 San Marino Grand Prix at a soaking Misano in a race with just fifteen finishers.
The Kiefer Racing rider made history by leading the first ever Swiss 1-2 in any class over the line, with Luthi applying pressure and overtaking briefly after forcing an error in the closing stages, though Aegerter immediately took the place back after the Interwetten man went wide.
He then controlled the race from the front all the way to the line as Luthi eased off to grab important championship points in second.
The result gives Aegerter just his second ever win with his best result of the season while Luthi has cut Morbidelli’s title lead to just nine points after the EG 0,0 Marc VDS rider took a spectacular tumble while leading the race.
An emotional Hafizh Syahrin also returned to the podium. The wet weather specialist held back tears of joy in Parc Ferme, which turned to a smile on the podium after climbing to third in the race from 14th on the grid with Petronas Raceline Malaysia, his best result of the season also equals his career best performance and is his first podium appearance since Malaysia 2012.
Fourth went to Francseco Bagnaia(Sky Racing VR46), the best rookie in the race rode carefully and put in a smooth overtake on Taka Nakagami before the Japanese rider began to struggle and fell on the last lap.
Brad Binder benefited from the many exits while keeping his head for fifth for Red Bull KTM Ajo, his best result since moving up to Moto2.
Fabio Quartararo (Pons HP 40) crossed the line in sixth to also record his best finish since moving up to the intermediate class.
Seventh went to Dynavolt’s Sandro Cortese, while Simone Corsi crossed the line in seventh for Speed Up after falling from fifth on the final lap with the finish in sight and remounting to cross the line.
Khairul Idham Pawi remained a strong prospect in the wet and secured ninth for Idemitsu Honda Team Asia, his best Moto2 result.
The top ten was completed by Jesko Raffin (Garage Plus Interwetten).
Idemitsu’s Taka Nakagami recovered from his last lap fall for eleventh with all the rest of the points finishers having fallen at some point over the course of the race.
Alex De Angelis, the local San Marino rider repalcing Marcel Schrotter at Dynavolt, slid into the gravel with seven laps remaining but took twelfth.
Remy Gardner crashed twice on his way to 13th for Tech 3, as did 14th placed Tetsuta Nagashima (Teluru SAG Racing).
The final point went to Forward’s only finisher, wild-card Federico Fuligni in 15th, despite a trip to the pits.
There was barely a view of the special Forward fairings with both Luca Marini and Lorenzo Baldassarri falling early.
‘Balda’ fell at the same time as pole man Mattia Pasini who slid out at turn four with the pair suffering identical crashes.
Tarran Mackenzie, Xavi Vierge, Edgar Pons and Jorge Navarro. Augusto Fernandez and Xavier Simeon were also beaten by the conditions in the early stages of the race.
Miguel Oliveira slid out of third place around the half-way mark. Andrea Locatelli was next to exit with fourteen laps to run. Joe Roberts and Iker Lecuona fell soon after.
Stefano Manzi left the race with three laps left to run.
Alex Marquez missed the race through injury, he was joined in sitting the race out by Axel Pons who hurt himself in warm-up and did not join the grid.
