Lorenzo Baldassarri held off the returning Tom Luthi to take the first win of the new Triumph Moto2 era by just 0.026 seconds under the floodlights around the Losail International Circuit in Qatar.
The Italian took the lead from Xavi Vierge on the second lap of 20 and never relinquished the lead, even if the returning Swiss rider did make it work for it. Starting down in seventh, Luthi took his time and worked through the field methodically, working himself up to second with just four laps to go.
Edging closer to the Flexbox HP40 man, Luthi was on the tail of the leader with half a lap to go, but despite his best efforts, he couldn’t squeeze into the lead, leaving his only option as a drag to the line. Baldassarri held strong and held off the Dynavolt man to secure just his third win in Moto2.
Behind the front two, there was another photo finish for third place, with Luthi’s Dynavolt team-mate, Marcel Schrotter, pipping Remy Gardener to the line by just 0.002 seconds, demoting the Aussie down to fourth, leaving him waiting a little longer for his first podium in Moto2.
Augusto Fernandez was fifth after hitting a wall once getting into the top five, with the Spaniard finishing a second ahead of Sam Lowes who appeared to lose grip in the middle stages of the race.
Alex Marquez was another who started strongly before losing grip and finishing down in seventh place, two seconds ahead of Sky VR46’s Luca Marini. It was an impressive debut race for Moto2 rookies Enea Bastianini and Fabio Di Giannantonio who sandwiched front row starter Xavi Vierge to round out the top ten.
It was an evening to forget for KTM with title-hopeful Brad Binder struggled with chatter. The South African rider was only capable of bringing his Red Bull backed machine home in twelfth place with Andrea Locatelli, Jesko Raffin and Moto3 2018 World Champion Jorge Martin rounding out the point scorers.
Jake Dixon crashed out of the race in the early stages of the race, with the Brit losing the front end of his Angel Nieto machine.
