Britain’s Sam Lowes bagged third place in today’s Moto2 race at the Argentine MotoGP round as Johann Zarco became the first French winner since Jules Cluzel was victorious at Silverstone in 2010.
Zarco was untouchable in terms of pace, stretching the field as Xavier Simeon, Lowes and Mika Kallio scrapped it out. Lowes passed Simeon after two laps but Zarco was already more than a second up the road and he crossed the line with a 2.7s advantage, performing a back flip off a retaining wall in celebration.
Lowes rode a measured race as Alex Rins made his way through the field, catching the Speed Up man with four laps to go. Lowes had seen the attack on his pitboard and allowed Rins through with three to go to see what pace the former Moto3 man had.
Too much it turned out, as Rins immediately went away and pulled a 1.4s gap by the time they got to the chequered flag: “My board said +0, +0, +0 and I thought maybe he was just sat there and had a lot more pace.
“I wanted to have a look at him and see what I could do. As soon as he passed, he had so much more grip and was riding a bit more smoothly than me so it would only have been a matter of time anyway. I am happy to get my second ever podium.”
It was disaster for reigning champion Tito Rabat as he ran off track on lap one, re-joined in 24th and fought is way back to 12th place.
