ROUND 13/SEPTEMBER 15, 2013
MISANO WORLD CIRCUIT MARCO SIMONCELLI/MISANO, ITALY
MOTOGP
POL'S TURN
P40
MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
There was a sense of déjà vu in
Moto2 – especially for Takaaki Nakagami. Pol Espargaro led away and for
the first four laps, but then the Japanese took over and stretched away.
For most of the race his lead hovered
around two seconds, seeming unassailable and still the same after 19
laps. Then, as at previous rounds, it
started to shrink.
His pursuer was Espargaro, who
set a new record on lap 22 as he took
chunks out of the gap. He caught him
with two laps left and simply scythed
past, to win by .621 of a second.
"I was struggling in the early laps,
but when I got more comfortable with
the fuel load, I could go really fast,"
Espargaro said. Third went to Espargaro's teammate Esteve Rabat, the
trio well clear even by half distance.
The importance was for the championship.
Points leader Scott Redding was in
the next group, battling hard from the
start with Dominique Aegerter, the pair
soon joined by Thomas and then by
Frenchman Johann Zarco.
By the finish Luthi had escaped for
a lone fourth, but the other three were
banging fairings to the end. Aegerter
was fifth; Redding rescued sixth by a
