If the Race Direction didn’t punish Marc Marquez for torpedoing Kallio in Saturday’s third final practice, karma almost got him in the Moto2 race start at Motegi, but the talented Spaniard sliced through the field from almost last (just like Estoril 2010) to take his eighth victory of the season which brings him tantalizing closer to taking the Moto2 world title at Sepang next weekend.
It was a horrific start for the standings leader who was second on the starting grid as he seemed hypnotized by the lights only to find his gear in neutral, while his bike stalled everyone went barelling past him and zigzagging to avoid hitting him which could have been tears for everyone, but when the Spaniard took off almost last he recovered an incredible number of positions by the end first lap (he was 28th at the first turn) to find himself in ninth and ready to rumble for a podium finish.
While Marquez was furiously recovering positions, Scott Redding was leading the race ahead of Pol Espargaro, Tito Rabat, Bradley Smith, Thomas Luthi, Toni Elias (in his return to Moto2 with Italtrans), Mika Kallio and Takaaki Nakagami while Espargaro made an error letting his team mate take second who would then outbrake Redding to take the head of the race and getting a slight margin over the trailing field but his attempt to break away didn’t last very long.
In the meantime Marquez was already 5th first taking care of Elis and then Redding and conquering a provisional third place in what seemed an easy swoop and then went chasing after the Pons duo and posting one of the fastest lap of the race to catch them.
An big moment by Espargaro during the sixth lap saw Marquez pass his rival and begin to hunt down Rabat and catching him one lap later, but every attempt to pass the Pons rider was fended off on the brakes.
Marquez had to wait until the 10th lap to take the lead and try to escape, with Rabat and Espargaro giving chase, while the rest of the field was further back with Redding, Elias and Luthi battling it out for the fourth spot.
With 11 laps to go Espargaro passed his team mate and immediately began to cut into Marquez’s 1.
2 second advantage with two record breaking laps to get withing a 0.
5s and in the penultimate lap the Pons rider was in Marquez’s shadow, but he overbraked himself at turn 5 almost hitting the Suter in front him, but he managing recover and launch into another incredible final fast lap but it was too late to turn it into an attack as Marquez crossed over the finish line to fly to a 53 point advantage in the standings followed by Espargaro and Rabat.
Moto2 Motegi Race results:01- Marc Marquez – Team CatalunyaCaixa Repsol – Suter MMXII – 22 laps in 42’56.
171 02- Pol Espargaro – Tuenti Movil HP 40 – KALEX Moto2 – + 0.
415 03- Tito Rabat – Tuenti Movil HP 40 – KALEX Moto2 – + 9.
584 04- Scott Redding – Marc VDS Racing Team – KALEX Moto2 – + 11.
069 05- Thomas Luthi – Interwetten Paddock – Suter MMXII – + 11.
595 06- Simone Corsi – CAME Iodaracing Project – FTR Moto M212 – + 18.
383 07- Takaaki Nakagami – Italtrans Racing Team – KALEX Moto2 – + 18.
672 08- Johann Zarco – JiR Moto2 – MotoBI – + 28.
226 09- Axel Pons – Tuenti Movil HP 40 – KALEX Moto2 – + 28.
451 10- Dominique Aegerter – Technomag CIP – Suter MMXII – + 28.
599 11- Julian Simon – Blusens Avintia – Suter MMXII – + 28.
971 12- Anthony West – QMMF Racing Team – Speed Up S12 – + 29.
609 13- Jordi Torres – MAPFRE Aspar Team Moto2 – Suter MMXII – + 29.
815 14- Xavier Simeon – Tech 3 Racing – Tech 3 Mistral 610 – + 39.
783 15- Mike Di Meglio – Kiefer Racing – KALEX Moto2 – + 39.
868 16- Yuki Takahashi – NGM Mobile Forward Racing – FTR Moto M212 – + 39.
970 17- Mika Kallio – Marc VDS Racing Team – KALEX Moto2 – + 40.
763 18- Andrea Iannone – Speed Master Team – Speed Up S12 – + 40.
900 19- Nico Terol – MAPFRE Aspar Team Moto2 – Suter MMXII – + 44.
379 20- Alex De Angelis – NGM Mobile Forward Racing – FTR Moto M212 – + 46.
507 21- Ratthapark Wilairot – Thai Honda PTT Gresini Moto2 Suter 151.
0 +55.
561 22- Ricky Cardus – Arguiñano Racing Team – AJR Moto2 – + 55.
815 23- Tomoyoshi Koyama – Technomag CIP – Suter MMXII – + 56.
051 24- Marcel Schrotter – Desguaces La Torre SAG – Bimota HB4 2012 – + 56.
492 25- Gino Rea – Federal Oil Gresini Moto2 – Suter MMXII – + 58.
417 26- Alessandro Andreozzi – Speed Master Team – Speed Up S12 – + 1’12.
398 27- Elena Rosell – QMMF Racing Team – Speed Up S12 – + 1’39.
841 28- Eric Granado – JiR Moto2 – MotoBI – + 1’40.
787 29- Jesko Raffin – GP Team Switzerland – KALEX Moto2 – 1 lapA late error seemed to have cost Espargaro his chance, before a mighty final lap got him back on Marquez’s tail.
He could not beat the 2013 Honda MotoGP rider, though, as Marquez opened up a 53-point championship lead with victory.
Rabat hung on to a podium finish in third.
Redding fended off Tom Luthi to take fourth, while Simone Corsi resisted top local rider Takaagi Nakagami to earn sixth.
Former champion Toni Elias ran as high as third on his return to Moto2 with Italtrans, before crashing out in the closing stages.