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Edition

Australia
Race report

Le Mans Moto2: Marquez ends winless streak

Alex Marquez took his first Moto2 victory in over a year at Le Mans as championship leader Lorenzo Baldassarri crashed out of the race.

Alex Marquez, Marc VDS Racing, French Moto2 2019

Alex Marquez, Marc VDS Racing, French Moto2 2019

Gold and Goose / Motorsport Images

Baldassarri had a big crash just one lap into the race and even collected Mattia Pasini in the process, before being taken away on a stretcher.

He was subsequently diagnosed with a dislocated right collarbone and a concussion, and headed the local hospital.

It was the second major incident in two laps, with Andrea Locatelli having had a massive highside at Turn 3 after the start, the Italian fortunate to avoid being hit by another bike.

Tom Luthi and Marquez took first and second from pole-sitter Jorge Navarro at the start, with the Swiss rider leading the first few laps.

But Marquez passed Luthi at the Dunlop Curve on lap 4 and the latter lost more positions in quick succession.

For a while it was a Marc VDS 1-2 with Xavi Vierge following Marquez, but the charging Simone Corsi soon passed the latter.

The Tasca Racing rider carved his way through the field from 18th on the grid, running second after just nine laps.

But as he set out after Marquez, Corsi ended up crashing out just three laps later at Turn 13.

Marquez's lead then grew to over a second, with Navarro inheriting second. The Speed Up rider's efforts to close in on Marquez ended when Augusto Fernandez started to attack him, the duo switching positions a couple of times, allowing Marquez to increase his gap to two seconds.

Navarro looked to have started a late-race charge, but that stopped when he ran wide at Garage Vert, allowing Fernandez through.

Marquez then managed his gap to cross the line first by 1.1s, his first win since Motegi in 2017.

Navarro did not let Fernandez pull away and even reclaimed second, only to make another mistake, before eventually securing the position with a last-lap move.

Both Navarro and Fernandez repeated their results from the previous race at Jerez, with Brad Binder taking his best result of the season with the struggling Ajo KTM team.

He stole fourth from Vierge in the dying stages, the latter followed by Luthi, who had to settle for sixth.

Italtrans rookie Enea Bastianini finished seventh, followed by Marcel Schrotter (Intact), Iker Lecuona (CGBM) and Nicolo Bulega (Sky VR46).

Nine riders crashed out of the race including Sam Lowes, Somkiat Chantra, Remy Gardner, Dimas Ekky Pratama and Steven Odendaal.

Cla Rider Bike Laps Time Gap
1 Spain Alex Marquez
Kalex 25 40'36.428
2 Spain Jorge Navarro
Speed Up 25 40'37.547 1.119
3 Spain Augusto Fernandez
Kalex 25 40'38.228 1.800
4 South Africa Brad Binder
KTM 25 40'42.443 6.015
5 Spain Xavi Vierge
Kalex 25 40'43.485 7.057
6 Switzerland Thomas Luthi
Kalex 25 40'45.829 9.401
7 Italy Enea Bastianini
Kalex 25 40'46.523 10.095
8 Germany Marcel Schrotter
Kalex 25 40'46.903 10.475
9 Spain Iker Lecuona
KTM 25 40'47.674 11.246
10 Italy Nicolo Bulega
Kalex 25 40'53.540 17.112
11 Japan Tetsuta Nagashima
Kalex 25 40'54.965 18.537
12 Italy Fabio Di Giannantonio
Speed Up 25 40'56.245 19.817
13 Italy Luca Marini
Kalex 25 41'04.243 27.815
14 United States Joe Roberts
KTM 25 41'04.316 27.888
15 Italy Stefano Manzi
MV 25 41'25.567 49.139
16 Germany Lukas Tulovic
KTM 25 41'27.228 50.800
17 United Kingdom Jake Dixon
KTM 25 41'28.116 51.688
18 Italy Marco Bezzecchi
KTM 25 41'29.651 53.223
19 Germany Philipp Ottl
KTM 25 41'37.287 1'00.859
20 Spain Jorge Martin
KTM 25 41'40.145 1'03.717
Switzerland Dominique Aegerter
MV 24 39'25.436 1 Lap
Indonesia Dimas Ekky Pratama
Kalex 21 35'02.439 4 Laps
Andorra Xavi Cardelus
KTM 20 34'08.702 5 Laps
Australia Remy Gardner
Kalex 13 21'13.824 12 Laps
South Africa Steven Odendaal
NTS 12 19'51.813 13 Laps
Netherlands Bo Bendsneyder
NTS 12 20'08.414 13 Laps
Italy Simone Corsi
Kalex 9 14'41.637 16 Laps
United Kingdom Sam Lowes
Kalex 8 13'15.531 17 Laps
Thailand Somkiat Chantra
Kalex 8 13'23.003 17 Laps
Italy Lorenzo Baldassarri
Kalex 1 1'42.028 24 Laps
Italy Mattia Pasini
Kalex 1 1'42.391 24 Laps
Italy Andrea Locatelli
Kalex

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