Austin Moto2: Rins sees off Lowes threat to win

The battle for victory was fought exclusively between Rins and Lowes, who started from pole and third place respectively, once the latter had cleared reigning champion Johann Zarco on the second lap.

Though Rins had built up a small advantage on the opening lap, Lowes quickly caught the Spaniard and remained in the Pons rider's wheeltracks for much of the race.

But Lowes was never able to quite draw close enough to his rival to launch an overtaking attempt, and in the closing stages Rins was able to up his pace to edge clear.

The Spaniard went on to beat Lowes by two seconds at the chequered flag, although Lowes did take the lead of the championship by a single point ahead of Rins with two consecutive second-place finishes.

Some way behind the duo, an intense six-way battle for the final podium spot raged, as Zarco became embroiled in a fierce dice with Swiss duo Thomas Luthi and Dominique Aegerter in the early stages.

Jonas Folger, Takaaki Nakagami and Simone Corsi were also able to join in the fight as the race progressed, Luthi leading the group at half-distance before falling prey to Zarco with five laps to go.

Nakagami swiftly followed through to take fourth, only to be wiped out by a Corsi at the first corner at the start of the following lap in an incident that caught the attention of the stewards.

That left the way clear for Zarco to take third ahead of Aegerter, Folger, Corsi and Luthi, who continued his slide to the back of the group.

Eighth place went to Xavier Simeon ahead of QMMF teammate Julian Simon, with Marcel Schrotter clinching the final spot inside the top 10.

Nakagami was able to continue after his clash with Corsi, ultimately coming home to claim the last point with a 15th place finish.

Race results

Pos	Rider	Team	Bike	Time
1	Alex Rins	Paginas Amarillas HP 40	Kalex	41:22.174
2	Sam Lowes	Gresini Racing	Kalex	+2.091
3	Johann Zarco	Ajo Motorsport	Kalex	+7.737
4	Dominique Aegerter	Technomag Racing Interwetten	Kalex	+8.646
5	Jonas Folger	Dynavolt Intact GP	Kalex	+8.791
6	Simone Corsi	Speed Up Racing	Speed Up	+11.083
7	Thomas Luthi	Garage Plus Interwetten	Kalex	+11.278
8	Xavier Simeon	QMMF Racing Team	Speed Up	+17.933
9	Julian Simon	QMMF Racing Team	Speed Up	+18.718
10	Marcel Schrötter	AGR Team	Kalex	+19.408
11	Alex Marquez	Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS	Kalex	+22.173
12	Sandro Cortese	Dynavolt Intact GP	Kalex	+23.898
13	Luis Salom	SAG Team	Kalex	+25.395
14	Franco Morbidelli	Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS	Kalex	+26.883
15	Takaaki Nakagami	Idemitsu Honda Team Asia	Kalex	+27.598
16	Hafizh Syahrin	Petronas Raceline Malaysia Team Honda	Kalex	+29.341
17	Mattia Pasini	Italtrans Racing Team	Kalex	+30.197
18	Isaac Viñales	Tech 3 Racing	Tech 3	+36.863
19	Ratthapark Wilairot	Idemitsu Honda Team Asia	Kalex	+38.383
20	Xavi Vierge	Tech 3 Racing	Tech 3	+38.437
21	Jesko Raffin	Sports-Millions-EMWE-SAG	Kalex	+45.206
22	Axel Pons	AGR Team	Kalex	+47.688
23	Lorenzo Baldassarri	Forward Racing	Kalex	+53.873
24	Alessandro Tonucci	Tasca Racing Scuderia Moto2	Kalex	+1:11.159
R	Miguel Oliveira	Leopard Racing	Kalex
R	Danny Kent	Leopard Racing	Kalex
R	Robin Mulhauser	Technomag Racing Interwetten	Kalex
R	Luca Marini	Forward Racing	Kalex
W	Efren Vazquez	JPMoto Malaysia	Suter