Race report

Moto2 Barcelona

Barcelona Moto2: Marini beats Lowes to extend points lead

VR46 rider Luca Marini extended his championship lead after prevailing in a tense battle with Marc VDS’ Sam Lowes in the Moto2 Catalan Grand Prix

Lewis Duncan

Edited: Sep 27, 2020, 12:26 PM

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Luca Marini, Sky Racing Team VR46

Valentino Rossi’s half-brother Marini did his chances of a MotoGP step in 2021 no harm by beating Lowes by 0.981 seconds to open up a 20-point lead in the standings after his main rivals struggled.

Poleman Marini beat the field on the run into Turn 1 off the line ahead of the Speed Up duo of Fabio Di Giannantonio and Jorge Navarro, while Lowes slid down the order.

Lowes recovered to third on lap six of 22 after breezing past Navarro into the first corner and quickly got onto the tail of Di Giannantonio, who wasn’t able to trouble Marini’s lead.

Marc VDS rider Lowes got out of shape on the brakes into Turn 10 on the seventh tour as he tried to pass Di Giannantonio and ran wide in the process, allowing Marini to break away by over a second.

Lowes got the move on the Speed Up rider done at Turn 1 at the start of the next lap and immediately wiped a few tenths out of Marini.

By lap 10, Lowes had reduced Marini’s advantage from nine tenths to just three, but the gap would remain fairly steady as the VR46 rider responded to the pressure.

However, Lowes soon upped his pace marginally and found his way through at the first corner on lap 16.

He couldn’t shake the Italian, though, and came under immense pressure in the final three laps as Lowes’ rear tyre began to fade.

Marini’s superior traction allowed him to punch out of the final corner better and he eased past Lowes into Turn 1 with three to go.

The battle came to an end when Lowes ran wide at Turn 6 on the penultimate lap, losing him seven tenths on that lap and allowing Marini to ease to the chequered flag for his third win of the 2020 season.

Di Giannantonio took his first Moto2 podium since Aragon last year and the first for Speed Up in 2020, with teammate Navarro besting American Racing’s Joe Roberts in a fun battle in fourth.

Enea Bastianini leaped from 10th to fifth on the opening lap on his Italtrans machine, but struggled to make inroads into the podium battle and was a distance sixth in the end.

Bastianini headed the sister VR46 bike of Marco Bezzecchi, who was forced into a recover ride after an early mistake and drops behind his fellow Italian in the standings – Bezzecchi’s gap to Marini now 36 points.

Aron Canet was eighth on his Aspar bike, with Marcos Ramirez (American Racing) and Intact GP’s Marcel Schrotter rounding out the top 10.

Jorge Martin’s return from COVID-19 ended in retirement owing to technical issues with his Ajo KTM, while Petronas Sprinta’s Jack Dixon’s hopes of a second-successive top six were dashed by a bike problem early on.

Race results:

Cla # Rider Bike Time 1 10 Italy Luca Marini
Kalex 2 22 United Kingdom Sam Lowes
Kalex 0.981 3 21 Italy Fabio Di Giannantonio
Speed Up 4.399 4 9 Spain Jorge Navarro
Speed Up 5.608 5 16 United States Joe Roberts
Kalex 5.797 6 33 Italy Enea Bastianini
Kalex 6.080 7 72 Italy Marco Bezzecchi
Kalex 8.552 8 44 Spain Arón Canet
Speed Up 9.928 9 42 Spain Marcos Ramirez
Kalex 14.874 10 23 Germany Marcel Schrotter
Kalex 15.058 11 12 Switzerland Thomas Luthi
Kalex 17.687 12 45 Japan Tetsuta Nagashima
Kalex 18.910 13 40 Spain Hector Garzo
Kalex 19.017 14 57 Spain Edgar Pons
Kalex 19.315 15 24 Italy Simone Corsi
MV Agusta 20.404 16 87 Australia Remy Gardner
Kalex 24.358 17 64 Netherlands Bo Bendsneyder
NTS 27.561 18 55 Malaysia Hafizh Syahrin
Speed Up 36.014 19 27 Indonesia Andi Gilang
Kalex 36.101 20 99 Kasma Daniel Kasmayudin
Kalex 37.659 21 74 Piotr Biesiekirski
NTS 1'00.256 7 Italy Lorenzo Baldassarri
Kalex 37 Spain Augusto Fernandez
Kalex 35 Thailand Somkiat Chantra
Kalex 88 Spain Jorge Martin
Kalex 97 Spain Xavi Vierge
Kalex 96 United Kingdom Jake Dixon
Kalex 11 Italy Nicolo Bulega
Kalex 19 Italy Lorenzo Dalla Porta
Kalex 62 Italy Stefano Manzi
MV Agusta View full results

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