Sachsenring Moto2: Morbidelli beats Oliveira by 0.066s

Poleman Morbidelli, who will race for his current team Marc VDS in the premier class next year, looked to have a comfortable run to the flag after nearest rivals Thomas Luthi and Alex Marquez crashed, but he was very nearly denied by a late Oliveira charge.

Off the line, Marquez had managed a marginally better launch than Morbidelli, going down the middle of the corner and forcing the championship leader to the outside.

Behind them, Luthi had stormed from seventh to fourth – and, as the top four began to break away from the pack, he swiftly moved past Sandro Cortese and Morbidelli to shadow race leader Marquez.

Marquez ran wide at the first corner of the third lap, allowing Luthi into the lead and letting the Swiss rider build a bit of a gap, while he scrapped with teammate Morbidelli.

Shortly thereafter, Marquez suffered a nasty crash while following Morbidelli through Turn 2, taking a hit from his out-of-control Marc VDS bike as he tumbled through the gravel.

With his teammate no longer on his tail, Morbidelli reeled in Luthi in virtually no time, before pulling off a smooth overtake down the inside of the Turn 12 left-hander.

Luthi stuck with him and came close to retaking the lead down the inside of Turn 1 a couple of laps later, but another attempted pass further into the lap ended with him falling off his bike.

By that point, Oliveira had scythed his way through the chasing pack, the Portuguese KTM rider continuing to gain on Morbidelli after Luthi's crash.

He was right with the Italian with 10 laps left to go but could only edge ahead on the penultimate tour at Turn 12.

But Morbidelli soon retook the lead down the inside of Turn 1 and survived Oliveira's last-lap onslaught to win by 0.066s.

Francesco Bagnaia made up the podium, having overtaken Simone Corsi with two laps left to run, with Corsi followed at the flag by compatriot Mattia Pasini in fifth.

Moto3 graduates Jorge Navarro and Brad Binder scored their best finishes of the season in sixth and seventh, with Cortese, Marcel Schrotter and Takaaki Nakagami making up the top 10.

Tech 3 rider Hector Garzo, making his Moto2 debut in place of the injured Xavi Vierge, ran as high as fourth early on, but was swiftly shuffled down the order.

He then had a painful crash at Turn 12 and just narrowly avoided being hit by Andrea Locatelli's bike, which cartwheeled over him after the Italian had fallen in the same corner.

The outcome of the race leaves Morbidelli on 173 points to nearest rival Luthi's 136, with Oliveira moving up to third on 114 – one point clear of Marquez.

Race results:

Pos.	#	Rider	Bike	Time/Gap
1	21	Franco Morbidelli	Kalex	41'05.137
2	44	Miguel Oliveira	KTM	0.066
3	42	Francesco Bagnaia	Kalex	0.574
4	24	Simone Corsi	Speed Up	0.749
5	54	Mattia Pasini	Kalex	1.300
6	9	Jorge Navarro	Kalex	8.958
7	41	Brad Binder	KTM	9.204
8	11	Sandro Cortese	Suter	15.099
9	23	Marcel Schrötter	Suter	17.875
10	30	Takaaki Nakagami	Kalex	19.291
11	55	Hafizh Syahrin	Kalex	20.767
12	87	Remy Gardner	Tech 3	21.533
13	40	Fabio Quartararo	Kalex	24.635
14	19	Xavier Simeon	Kalex	27.357
15	62	Stefano Manzi	Kalex	27.411
16	2	Jesko Raffin	Kalex	37.620
17	68	Yonny Hernandez	Kalex	44.500
18	45	Tetsuta Nagashima	Kalex	44.556
19	57	Edgar Pons	Kalex	48.711
20	89	Khairul Idham Pawi	Kalex	49.534
21	27	Iker Lecuona	Kalex	52.511
22	32	Isaac Viñales	Kalex	1'04.259
23	6	Tarran Mackenzie	Suter	1'12.905
24	22	Federico Fuligni	Kalex	1'18.109
Ret	12	Thomas Luthi	Kalex	18 laps
Ret	77	Dominique Aegerter	Suter	22 laps
Ret	73	Alex Marquez	Kalex	25 laps
Ret	14	Hector Garzo	Tech 3	27 laps
Ret	5	Andrea Locatelli	Kalex	27 laps
Ret	37	Augusto Fernandez	Speed Up	-