Delighted Espargaro wins at home in Barcelona

Catalunya 2013 - Moto2 - RACE - Highlights

Sunday, 16 June 2013

Pol Espargaro has claimed his second victory of the Moto2™ campaign, winning Sunday’s Gran Premi Aperol de Catalunya after fending off teammate Esteve Rabat. In third place, Tom Luthi returned to the podium for the first time since Brno 2012.

It was a race of high attrition in which 11 of the 34 starters failed to make the finish on another warm afternoon in Catalunya. On Saturday, Espargaro had taken pole position and was only headed this afternoon when he allowed Tuenti HP 40 teammate Rabat through, only to retake the lead on Lap 17. Rabat mounted a strong attack on the final lap and would be less than one tenth of a second behind at the finish line.

Several riders ran into trouble, not least Blusens Avintia’s Toni Elias who was caught up in drama at the first corner. It was also a disappointing conclusion for reigning Moto3™ World Champion Sandro Cortese (Dynavolt Intact GP), who pitted after going off at Turn 10, and Jordi Torres who crashed his Aspar Team Moto2 bike out of the race in the middle of the first chicane on the 18^th of the 23 laps.

 Having demonstrated strong form in practice, Luthi was thrilled to claim his first podium of the season for Interwetten Paddock Moto2 Racing, despite being yet to fully recover from injuries sustained in a Valencia pre-season testing accident. Scott Redding maintains his championship lead courtesy of fourth place for Marc VDS Racing Team, with Takaaki Nakagami fifth for Italtrans Racing Team.

Catalunya has been a costly weekend for Redding’s teammate Mika Kallio, who qualified 12^thbefore rising to ninth position in the race - but dropping behind both Tuenti HP 40 riders to fourth in the championship. Redding carries an advantage of 35 points over Espargaro, who has elevated himself from fifth to second place overall ahead of the seventh round of the campaign in The Netherlands.