Catalunya Moto2: Zarco beats Rins to score emotional win

After securing pole on Saturday, the Frenchman spoke of his desire to take victory in honour of his fallen colleague Luis Salom, who was killed in second practice on Friday in a violent crash at Turn 12.

And Zarco duly delivered, tailing long-time leader Rins for the majority of the 23-lap race on the revised circuit layout before making his move and pulling away to win by 4.180s.

It was Thomas Luthi to led the pack into the first corner, but a mistake by the Swiss rider on the opening lap allowed both Rins and Zarco through, the pair gradually moving clear of the rest.

But, while Rins held the lead, he was never able to pull more than a few tenths away from Zarco, both riders setting a relentless pace that Luthi was unable to match.

Zarco made the decisive move of the race at the start of the 18th lap, slipstreaming past Rins and completing the move into Turn 1.

And while Rins stuck to his rival's tail for a couple of laps, Zarco soon stamped his authority on the race, opening a lead of 1.6s with two laps left and more than doubling that advantage by the finish.

"Rins was strong at the beginning of the race, so I decided to stay behind him and understand how to improve," said Zarco.

"Finally I found the pace, so I decided with six laps to go it was the moment [to pass]. I'm really happy, and like I said yesterday I want to give this victory to Salom."

Nakagami on the podium

At half-distance, Luthi came under increasing pressure from Takaaki Nakagami in the fight for the final podium place, the Japanese rider having already dispatched Sam Lowes and Hafiz Syahrin.

Nakagami grabbed the place at Turn 5 six laps to go, a move he was forced to repeat one lap later before pulling clear to seal third, nine seconds down on Zarco at the finish.

Syahrin took fourth away from Luthi on the penultimate lap, with Lowes completing the top-half dozen, albeit exactly 13 seconds off the lead.

Jonas Folger, Miguel Oliveira, Axel Pons and Marcel Schrotter completed the top 10.

The most notable retiree was Alex Marquez, who had worked his way up to fourth before losing the front at Turn 10 on the 12th lap. He continued to finish an eventual 18th.

There was also early drama at the chicane as Simone Corsi hit Lorenzo Baldassarri at Turn 15, both Italian riders crashing. Corsi was out on the spot, but Baldassarri picked up his bike to take two points in 14th.

Race results:

Pos	Rider	Team	Bike	Time/Gap
1	Johann Zarco	Ajo Motorsport	Kalex	42:31.347
2	Alex Rins	Pons Racing	Kalex	+4.180
3	Takaaki Nakagami	Idemitsu Honda Team Asia	Kalex	+9.313
4	Hafizh Syahrin	Petronas Raceline Malaysia Team Honda	Kalex	+10.777
5	Thomas Luthi	Technomag Racing Interwetten	Kalex	+10.961
6	Sam Lowes	Gresini Racing	Kalex	+13.000
7	Jonas Folger	Dynavolt Intact GP	Kalex	+17.046
8	Miguel Oliveira	Leopard Racing	Kalex	+20.637
9	Axel Pons	AGR Team	Kalex	+20.646
10	Marcel Schrötter	AGR Team	Kalex	+23.163
11	Franco Morbidelli	Marc VDS Racing	Kalex	+28.145
12	Mattia Pasini	Italtrans Racing Team	Kalex	+28.348
13	Julian Simon	QMMF Racing Team	Speed Up	+34.482
14	Lorenzo Baldassarri	Forward Racing	Kalex	+37.567
15	Remy Gardner	Tasca Racing Scuderia Moto2	Kalex	+42.998
16	Isaac Viñales	Tech 3	Tech 3	+44.632
17	Edgar Pons	Pons Racing	Kalex	+48.536
18	Alex Marquez	Marc VDS Racing	Kalex	+51.046
19	Ramdan Rosli	Petronas AHM Malaysia	Kalex	+1:22.466
20	Xavi Vierge	Tech 3	Tech 3	+1:25.462
21	Robin Mulhauser	CarXpert Interwetten	Kalex	+1 lap
R	Ratthapark Wilairot	Idemitsu Honda Team Asia	Kalex
R	Luca Marini	Forward Racing	Kalex
R	Dominique Aegerter	CarXpert Interwetten	Kalex
R	Danny Kent	Leopard Racing	Kalex
R	Sandro Cortese	Dynavolt Intact GP	Kalex
R	Simone Corsi	Speed Up Racing	Speed Up
R	Xavier Simeon	QMMF Racing Team	Speed Up