VOL. 53 ISSUE 18 MAY 10, 2016 P63
Kalex), who had qualified on
the front row but been dropped
back to row three; his fastes lap
was canceled because his tire
pressures had been found to be
below the permitted minimum.
By lap 10, Morbidelli was out
of touch, but the front four were
still close, with Luthi now fourth
behind Baldassari. The pair were
soon battling over the position,
which allowed Rins and Corsi to
get away up front.
It was an austere run from
there to the end, Rins only gain-
ing some clear air with four laps
to go to take his second win of
the season by 1.8 seconds.
Corsi's second was his first
runner-up finish since 2014, also
at Le Mans, and also his first
podium of the year.
The battle for third was re-
solved when Baldassari slipped
off, remounting to finish out
of the points. This promoted
Morbidelli to fourth, five seconds
MOTO2
RINS MAKES IT TWO FROM FIVE
Thomas Luthi was on pole, and
the Garage Plus Kalex rider
took the lead away from Franco
Morbidelli (EG-VDS Kalex) and
second qualifier Alex Rins (Pagi-
nas Amarillas Kalex), while Jonas
Folger (Dynavolt Kalex) didn't
complete the first lap.
Rins was directly up to
second, and on lap seven he
pounced on Luthi to take a lead
he would never relinquish.
The win was not without pres-
sure, however. "I pushed hard to
pass Luthi," Rins said, "because
I knew he was fast, but when I
was there I got a signal that there
were four riders behind me, so I
had to keep pushing."
They were Luthi and Morbidel-
li, joined by Simone Corsi—the
veteran having something of a
renaissance after his switch to
Speed Up—and Italian teenager
Lorenzo Baldassari (Forward
hand injuries in pre-season tests.
A long way back, Alvaro
Bautista (Gresini Aprilia) claimed
another top 10, with teammate
Stefan Bradl six seconds away
in 10th. Eugene Laverty (Aspar
Ducati) faded to 11th, still com-
fortably clear of a very slow
Loris Baz (Avintia Ducati). The
remounted Marquez was a lap
down in 13th and last place.
Jack Miller (EG-VDS Honda)
also crashed out, after moving
up to 12th from 18th on the grid,
so too did rookie teammate Tito
Rabat, his first non-finish of the
year. Others to fall were Yonny
Hernandez (Aspar Ducati) and
Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda),
while Scott Redding (Octo
Pramac Ducati) retired out on
track after warning lights pre-
saged a loss of power.
Lorenzo now heads the charts
on 90 points, then Marquez
(85), Rossi (78), Pedrosa (53)
and the rising Vinales (49).
With rumors of a MotoGP seat beckoning
for the promising Spaniard, Alex Rins took
an important win in France.
