Britain’s Sam Lowes has re-taken the Moto2 championship lead by two points with a third-place finish at Mugello after chaos during a re-start saw him have to fight for the podium using a hard tyre in a ten-lap sprint.
Lowes had planned to use the harder option Dunlop over the planned 21-lap race distance but it was shortened to half that when first a crash from Xavier Vierge popped a trackside airbag and then massive confusion over the quick re-start procedure saw the entire grid cleared and all 30 riders had to re-form.
Alex Rins, who had held a five-point lead over Lowes, had to start from the back of the grid after a pitlane rule infringement cam through to seventh at the flag as Lowes battled with Thomas Luthi and Hafizh Syahrin for the last podium spot. Johann Zarco and Lorenzo Baldassarri - both on soft tyres - were in their own battle for the lead which Zarco won by 0.030s. Lowes had spent little time on the soft option rear during practice so didn’t have a setup for it.
“I’m happy for this third place, even though I’m a bit disappointed because at the first start I was feeling very good and I could easily keep a good pace. We worked all weekend with the hard tyre for the race, so at the restart we decided to keep the same tyre used on the first start, but when we started the 10-lap race I had less grip than before,” said Lowes.
“However, despite a bad start I was able to fight and pass Syahrin and Luthi, thus getting the podium. With a race on the full distance it would have been better, but after the difficulties of Le Mans is great to be competitive again: we have been fast and we fought, so I’m happy.”
Luthi ended in fourth with Syahrin fifth. Axel Pons closed fast for sixth place with Rins in seventh, Franco Morbidelli in eighth, Taka Nakagami - who started next to Rins - in ninth with Dominique Aegerter in tenth. Danny Kent grabbed two points for 14th place.
