ROUND 17/OCTOBER 27, 2013
TWIN-RING MOTEGI/MOTEGI, JAPAN
MOTOGP
P42
MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
ESPARGARO WINS RACE, CHAMPIONSHIP
There wasn't really much doubt about
Moto2, with Scott Redding and his broken arm
15th on the grid, but his last chances of the
title were snatched away most cruelly on the
way out of the first double-apex U-bend. Tito
Rabat crashed his Tuenti Kalex near the front
of the jostling pack and Redding was unable to
avoid his bike, and went looping over the bars
while substitute rider Marinelarena was cannoned off into the grass. The red flags came
out at once as the two innocent victims were
stretchered away and Rabat hitched a lift on a
scooter.
The race was rescheduled from 27 laps to 15
– a second sprint in a row. But the championship was effectively over, although both riders
escaped serious injury. Rabat and Redding
didn't make the restart; Dominique Aegerter
did, after falling elsewhere on the first lap.
It was not quite start to finish as first-time
pole qualifier Mika Kallio led the first half-lap,
but second-row starter Espargaro pounced at
the bottom of the hill into the second underpass, and was never headed. The Finn, having
won here twice on a 125 and once on a 250,
had thought he might do it again, but the gap
grew to more than a second as Espargaro set
the fastest lap on the ninth, and that was that.
Simone Corsi had be
two; then Interwetten's
Suter ahead of Johann
bike, and he was set for
successive rostrum, in a
race.
Zarco was leading a
Simeon and Julian Simo
lap nine with gear-selec
was a couple of second
still one clear of Nico Te
and disposed of Alex de
came through to eighth
likewise to ninth, with M
