ROAD RACE
FIM MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
ROUND 15 / OCTOBER 16, 2016
TWIN RING MOTEGI / MOTEGI, JAPAN
P94
10, the far hairpin, unable to under-
stand why. After his win at Aragon,
this reversed his slim but growing title
hopes for good.
Now Takaaki Nakagami (Idemitsu
Kalex) had also got ahead of Zarco, but
there would be no further threat, with
Axel Pons (AGR Kalex) a little way back
in fifth, and then a gang led by Sandro
Cortese (Dynavolt Kalex). His team-
mate Jonas Folger was four places
behind, but he also crashed out on lap
five.
By half distance, Morbidelli's close
pursuit of Luthi was over and he was
falling back into the hands of Naka-
gami. A couple of laps later, Zarco got
ahead of the pair of them in one lap.
He was less than two seconds down
on Luthi, and the chase was on.
It looked like he might do it, and
Moto2
Crashes defined the meaning of the
Moto2 race. The championship had
been closing up. On the first lap, that
changed, when Alex Rins crashed on
only the third corner. And again next
time around when more distant chal-
lenger Sam Lowes slipped off, having
just got ahead of points leader and
deadly rival Johann Zarco.
They did not define the victory. Ajo
Kalex rider Zarco may have denied
pole to a hitherto dominant Thomas Lu-
thi (Derendinger Kalex). But he couldn't
stop the Swiss former 125 Champion
from leading start to finish, try as he
might.
The first laps were lively, with Franco
Morbidelli (EG-VDS Kalex) in close pur-
suit of Luthi, while Lowes had pushed
past Zarco to third when he fell at turn
(Left) Thomas
Luthi was one
of the last men
standing in the
crash-ridden
Moto2 race. He
held on to win.
(Below) Johann
Zarco (right) took
second in Moto2,
while Sam Lowes
was one of the
crash victims.
