Britain’s Sam Lowes took his Speed Up to third place in today’s Moto2 clash at the Assen MotoGP round in a race that was shortened to 16 laps following a red flag on the first lap when Luis Salom’s stricken bike left oil on the track at turn one.
At the re-start, Lowes got off to an average start as Jonas Folder got the holeshot from row two with reigning champion Tito Rabat, Xavier Simeon, Jonas Folger, Johann Zarco and Lowes in pursuit.
Folger managed to pull a one second gap at the front in three laps while Zarco pushed his way into second ahead of Rabat while Lowes tried to find a way around Simeon. Rabat reclaimed second a lap later and then set off after Folder.
With nine laps left, Rabat went past Folger at the Geert Timmer Chicane and Zarco followed him a lap later. Lowes put the same move on Folger with seven to go and the top three in the championship were in a fight for the podium spots.
With five left, Rabat had a lead of half a second but Zarco found another gear and pushed past the Spaniard with three laps left while Lowes just didn’t have that extra tenth or two to fight for top spot.
Alex Rins took fourth ahead of Thomas Luthi, Simeon and Folger with Mika Kallio, Alex Marquez and Simone Corsi rounding out the top ten.
