MotoGP reject Tom Luthi put on a vintage display of consistency to head a Dynavolt GP one-two in today’s Moto2 race at the Austin MotoGP round, taking the race win 2.5s from team-mate Marcel Schrotter.
Luthi took the lead from the MarcVDS Kalex of Alex Marquez on the brakes into turn 12 with 11 laps left and never looked back, leaving Schrotter, Marquez, Jorge Navarro and Mattia Pasini to fight it out for the podium spots.
Schrotter was able to pull a gap on the fight for third which, with two laps to go, was invaded by Pasini who hadn’t ridden the Triumph Moto2 until Friday morning.
The Italian came through to pass Luca Marini and then Marquez, who looked to have gearshift problems, and set off after Speed Up’s Navarro but just ran out of laps and had to settle for fourth place.
Sky VR46’s Marini was looking for a way past Marquez over the final two laps and their battling allowed Britain’s Sam Lowes back into the fight for the minor placings.
Neither quite had the pace, however, so Marquez took fifth place, Marini sixth and Lowes seventh after a front-row start.
The Gresini rider took a long, hard look at his rear tyre when he dismounted at race end.
Simone Corsi, Enea Bastianini and Andrea Locatelli completed the top ten with Remy Gardner in 11th.
Championship leader Lorenzo Baldassarri crashed out when Jorge Martin made an error in front of him and the Pons rider had nowhere to go but into the back of the reigning Moto3 champion.
Xavi Vierge, American Joe Roberts and Fabio Di Gainnantonio all went down in a big, first-corner crash but were unhurt.
