Jerez Moto2: Lowes extends points lead with dominant win

Gresini rider Lowes, who had taken pole position on Saturday, lost out to Folger at the start, but didn't take long to wrest back the top spot, doing so as his German rival ran wide at Dry Sack on the second lap.

Folger was able to keep Lowes honest for a good portion of the race, with less than half a second between the pair at mid-distance, but Folger was never able to draw close enough to attempt a pass.

It was in the final third of the race that Lowes began to press home his advantage over Folger, who had a fallen a second behind the leader with eight laps to go.

The gap between the pair grew by a second in the following three laps, Lowes growing his cushion to over three seconds before finally taking the chequered flag with 2.480s in hand after a leisurely final lap.

It was only the second Moto2 victory of Lowes' career, and his first on a Kalex chassis.

"In the final part of the race I just tried to keep a good rhythm and save the tyres," said Lowes. "The first win [of the season] has been coming and it's good to finally get that off my back."

Behind the leading pair, Alex Rins had a straightforward race to third, the Pons rider sticking with Lowes and Folger in the opening laps before falling back in the latter stages.

Franco Morbidelli had a lonely race to fourth, taking advantage of numerous crashes and retirements among the frontrunners.

Simone Corsi was among the first to hit the deck, doing so on the second lap, and was swiftly followed by Cortese's Intact GP teammate Sandro Cortese and Alex Marquez.

That promoted Marcel Schrotter into fifth, only for the German to crash out some laps later at Turn 13. Lorenzo Baldassarri and Miguel Oliveira soon followed suit, the duo having raun fifth and sixth until their respective demises in the closing stages.

All that handed fifth to reigning champion Johann Zarco, who recovered from a lowly grid slot of 15th to salvage important championship points, ahead of Thomas Luthi, who was as low down the order as 11th after a poor first lap.

Takaaki Nakagami finished just behind Luthi in seventh, ahead of Dominique Aegerter, Luis Salom and Xavier Simeon, who rounded off the top 10 after his monster qualifying crash.

Race results:

Pos	Rider	Team	Bike	Time/Gap	Laps
1	Sam Lowes	Gresini Racing	Kalex	44:58.624	26
2	Jonas Folger	Dynavolt Intact GP	Kalex	+2.480	26
3	Alex Rins	Paginas Amarillas HP 40	Kalex	+8.113	26
4	Franco Morbidelli	Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS	Kalex	+10.659	26
5	Johann Zarco	Ajo Motorsport	Kalex	+14.594	26
6	Thomas Luthi	Garage Plus Interwetten	Kalex	+16.019	26
7	Takaaki Nakagami	Idemitsu Honda Team Asia	Kalex	+16.352	26
8	Dominique Aegerter	Technomag Racing Interwetten	Kalex	+18.433	26
9	Luis Salom	SAG Team	Kalex	+21.502	26
10	Xavier Simeon	QMMF Racing Team	Speed Up	+31.300	26
11	Hafizh Syahrin	Petronas Raceline Malaysia Team Honda	Kalex	+35.980	26
12	Mattia Pasini	Italtrans Racing Team	Kalex	+37.348	26
13	Isaac Viñales	Tech 3 Racing	Tech 3	+37.454	26
14	Jesko Raffin	Sports-Millions-EMWE-SAG	Kalex	+48.923	26
15	Robin Mulhauser	Technomag Racing Interwetten	Kalex	+55.832	26
16	Luca Marini	Forward Racing	Kalex	+1:01.795	26
17	Lorenzo Baldassarri	Forward Racing	Kalex	+1:09.465	26
18	Federico Fuligni	Team Ciatti	Kalex	+1:10.201	26
19	Alessandro Tonucci	Tasca Racing Scuderia Moto2	Kalex	+1:10.642	26
R	Miguel Oliveira	Leopard Racing	Kalex		20
R	Marcel Schrötter	AGR Team	Kalex		11
R	Danny Kent	Leopard Racing	Kalex		5
R	Axel Pons	AGR Team	Kalex		5
R	Sandro Cortese	Dynavolt Intact GP	Kalex		4
R	Alex Marquez	Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS	Kalex		2
R	Simone Corsi	Speed Up Racing	Speed Up		1
R	Julian Simon	QMMF Racing Team	Speed Up		0
R	Xavi Vierge	Tech 3 Racing	Tech 3		0
R	Edgar Pons	Paginas Amarillas HP 40	Kalex		0
R	Ratthapark Wilairot	Idemitsu Honda Team Asia	Kalex		0