Starting from pole, Ajo rider Zarco led the opening laps, as he and Morbidelli, Thomas Luthi and Alex Rins formed an early breakaway group at the head of the pack.

The four were closely bunched in the early stages, with Zarco and Morbidelli swapping the lead multiple times in an increasingly fraught fight as Luthi and Rins engaged in their own battle for third behind.

But Marc VDS rider Morbidelli, seeking a maiden grand prix win, couldn't match the pace of two-time champion Zarco as the race entered its second half.

Visibly struggling with tyre wear, Morbidelli had dropped back to over a second behind with five laps to go, and came under increasing threat from Luthi.

That left Zarco in the clear to cruise to a seventh win of the year by a margin of 3.281s in his final Moto2 race before he steps up to the MotoGP class in 2017 on a Tech 3 Yamaha.

"I knew Tom and Franco were even stronger than me on pace, so I had to attack at the beginning and not let them get the good speed," said Zarco.

"I was good enough on the bike to attack and overtake, and I knew that after 15 laps I would come better. And this is exactly what happened, so the strategy worked really well."

Luthi made his move on Morbidelli at the start of the final lap to grab second, giving the Swiss veteran the runner-up spot in the championship.

With third, Morbidelli took his sixth podium in seven races, but fell a point short of Rins - who dropped to fifth behind Sam Lowes at the final corner - in the fight for third overall.

On his final grand prix start, Julian Simon had been running in sixth in the mid-part of the race, but a late crash for the Spaniard promoted Takaaki Nakagami to sixth at the finish.

Behind, Mattia Pasini won the fight for seventh ahead of Jonas Folger, Danny Kent and Marcel Schrotter.

Morbidelli's Marc VDS teammate Alex Marquez was another retirement, pulling out of the race with arm pump.

Cla	#	Rider	Bike	Time/Gap
1	5	Johann Zarco	Kalex	43'17.626
2	12	Thomas Luthi	Kalex	3.281
3	21	Franco Morbidelli	Kalex	4.981
4	22	Sam Lowes	Kalex	5.636
5	40	Alex Rins	Kalex	5.850
6	30	Takaaki Nakagami	Kalex	11.605
7	54	Mattia Pasini	Kalex	16.391
8	94	Jonas Folger	Kalex	16.964
9	52	Danny Kent	Kalex	17.451
10	23	Marcel Schrötter	Kalex	17.668
11	24	Simone Corsi	Speed Up	20.455
12	97	Xavi Vierge	Tech 3	20.911
13	44	Miguel Oliveira	Kalex	21.650
14	7	Lorenzo Baldassarri	Kalex	22.581
15	55	Hafizh Syahrin	Kalex	23.734
16	19	Xavier Simeon	Speed Up	26.328
17	2	Jesko Raffin	Kalex	29.421
18	87	Remy Gardner	Kalex	29.667
19	57	Edgar Pons	Kalex	29.749
20	14	Ratthapark Wilairot	Kalex	39.289
21	70	Robin Mulhauser	Kalex	43.105
22	10	Luca Marini	Kalex	43.532
23	60	Julian Simon	Speed Up	51.271
24	27	Iker Lecuona	Kalex	56.617
Ret	73	Alex Marquez	Kalex	10 laps
Ret	32	Isaac Viñales	Tech 3	17 laps
Ret	42	Federico Fuligni	Kalex	22 laps
Ret	11	Sandro Cortese	Kalex	23 laps
Ret	49	Axel Pons	Kalex	23 laps
Ret	16	Hugo Clere	TransFIORmers	23 laps