Argentina Moto2: Pasini holds off rivals to win

Italtrans rider Pasini took the lead from Lorenzo Baldassarri (Forward) on Lap 3 as both Italians, along with KTM works rider Oliveira, managed to initially build a lead over the rest of the field.

Pasini was not troubled for seven laps until he suffered a big wobble on a wet patch at the entry of the back straight, which allowed Oliveira to go past him.

However, Pasini made a forceful move on Oliveira at Turn 13 on the same lap and was back ahead.

The top three were soon caught by Vierge (Intact GP), who lost a few seconds early on when an overly optimistic overtaking attempt led him to go wide and nearly crash, as well as Marc VDS rider Alex Marquez.

Pasini and Oliveira traded places one more time in the same manner as before and the Turn 13 move forced the latter wide enough for Vierge to sneak past.

Pasini then came under pressure from Vierge, but the order of the top three did not change for the rest of the race and the 32-year-old took the win, his fourth in the intermediate class.

Vierge matched his best Moto2 result in second with Oliveira completing the podium.

Baldassarri lost pace late on and was 3.7s behind in fourth with Marquez having to settle for fifth after running wide twice during the race.

Tech 3's Remy Gardner took sixth, ahead of reigning Moto3 champion Joan Mir (Marc VDS).

Kiefer's Dominique Aegerter finished eighth with Qatar winner Francesco Bagnaia (Sky VR46) enduring a low-key race and only managing a ninth from 15th on the grid.

The top 10 was completed by Vierge's Intact teammate Marcel Schrotter.

Sam Lowes (CGBM) was running close to the top five before losing ground and only finishing 13th, with Hector Barbera (Pons) finishing in a lowly 20th position.

Brad Binder (KTM) hit the back of Jorge Navarro (Gresini) and crashed at Turn 7 on lap 2, the latter also having to retire with a broken exhaust.

Race results:

Cla	Rider	Bike	Gap
1	Mattia Pasini	Kalex
2	Xavi Vierge	Kalex	0.850
3	Miguel Oliveira	KTM	1.414
4	Lorenzo Baldassarri	Kalex	5.178
5	Alex Marquez	Kalex	5.431
6	Remy Gardner	Tech 3	10.425
7	Joan Mir	Kalex	13.379
8	Dominique Aegerter	KTM	13.460
9	Francesco Bagnaia	Kalex	22.038
10	Marcel Schrötter	Kalex	22.867
11	Iker Lecuona	KTM	24.102
12	Danny Kent	Speed Up	25.972
13	Sam Lowes	KTM	26.010
14	Isaac Viñales	Kalex	31.769
15	Andrea Locatelli	Kalex	33.264
16	Luca Marini	Kalex	33.828
17	Tetsuta Nagashima	Kalex	48.603
18	Steven Odendaal	NTS	50.651
19	Romano Fenati	Kalex	51.594
20	Hector Barbera	Kalex	53.070
21	Stefano Manzi	Suter	53.260
22	Fabio Quartararo	Speed Up	56.979
23	Simone Corsi	Kalex	59.266
24	Khairul Idham Pawi	Kalex	1'10.121
25	Joe Roberts	NTS	1'12.051
26	Zulfahmi Khairuddin	Kalex	1'32.993
27	Federico Fuligni	Kalex	1'33.218
28	Bo Bendsneyder	Tech 3	1'36.078
29	Eric Granado	Suter	1'38.951
Ret	Jorge Navarro	Kalex	20 laps
Ret	Brad Binder	KTM	22 laps
Ret	Jules Danilo	Kalex	22 laps