ROAD RACE
FIM MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
ROUND 10 / AUGUST 14, 2016
RED BULL RING / SPIELBERG, AUSTRIA
P58
Moto2
IRONMAN ZARCO
DOES IT AGAIN
Title leader Johann Zarco (Ajo
Kalex) was on for only the sec-
ond time this year, from Franco
Morbidelli (EG-VDS Kalex) and
Thomas Luthi (Derendinger
Kalex), with his main title rivals
Sam Lowes (Federal Oils Kalex)
and Alex Rins (Paginas Amarillas
Kalex) seventh and ninth.
Lowes would not be a factor;
crashing on lap four, and then
again terminally with 16 laps to
go; Rins seemed to have ruled
himself out of the front group
running wide on lap one, finish-
ing it a relatively distant seventh.
Zarco got a poor start, braked
late for the tight first corner, and
ran wide, leaving Morbidelli to
escape, chased by Alex Mar-
quez (EG-VDS Kalex) and Mar-
cel Schrotter (AGR Kalex).
Marquez would drop back,
and after seven laps he was
sixth, out of touch with the lead
group; Schrotter now second
ahead of Luthi and Zarco, with
Rins a couple of seconds down
in fifth.
Zarco was biding his time. "It
was hot and I was having some
trouble with the brakes, but I
knew I could be better when the
tires went down," he said.
Quite so, and shortly before
half distance he started to pick
up places—first Luthi, then
Schrotter, so that by lap 16 he
had closed almost a second's
gap to Morbidelli, and was ready
to pounce.
"I thought I could do it," said
Morbidelli. "But when Johann
came past he was so fast I
couldn't stay with him."
Thus the defending champion
forged clear, to take his fifth win
of the season, his fourth in the
last five races, by better than
three seconds. His chances of
becoming the first Moto2 Cham-
pion to defend his title success-
fully grow stronger race by race.
Luthi tried to follow him past
Morbidelli, and did get ahead on
lap 18, but couldn't escape. At
the same time, Rins was clos-
ing on the fading Schrotter, and
was soon ahead and working on
closing a gap of 1.5 seconds.
He was still over a second
Zarco (5) was
masterful, once
again, and increased
his lead in the points
standings.
