VOL. 54 ISSUE 34 AUGUST 29, 2017 P79
Pecco Bagnaia won a big
six-bike battle for fifth, narrowly
ahead of Simone Corsi (Speed
Up), who had displaced Bagna-
ia's SKY VR46 teammate Stefa-
no Manzi on the final lap. Miguel
Oliveira came back from a major
run-off after missing a gear to
snitch eighth from KTM Red Bull
teammate Brad Binder on the
last lap, with Dominque Aegerter
(Kiefer Suter) close in 10th.
Morbidelli stretched his title
lead again, 223 points to Luthi's
194. Marquez (155) had a costly
no-score, with Oliveira closing
on 141.
Moto3
Big track, little bikes, huge pack.
At half distance, there were still
23 of them in it, over the line
within 2.8 seconds. When the
red flags came out one lap early,
the top eight were within seven
tenths of a second; the top 20
inside 4.6. Impressive numbers.
Given that riders were all
within touching distance, often
four or five abreast, amazingly
the crash that stopped the race
involved only two of them;
KTM riders Bo Bendsneyder
and Juanfran Guevara, were
involved. Neither was seriously
hurt, but the latter was prone
by the track, causing the race
stoppage.
This of course scuppered any
race tactics and last-lap plans.
Jorge Martin, for example, had
planned with his team to start
the last lap third. But the lap
never finished, so the Del Conca
there were two laps to go.
Pasini took seven tenths back
on the penultimate lap, and
another half a second halfway
around the last. But he was on
the edge, and a couple of slides
took the edge off his challenge.
But the pressure had been
immense, and Nakagami had
to dig deep to resist it. It was a
good win.
Luthi was left behind in fourth.
Behind them, Luthi had got
ahead of Pasini in the early
stages, but the Italian was also
gaining speed. On lap 12 he was
ahead, and within two more laps
he was just a second behind
Morbidelli.
Again there was no resistance
when he caught and sliced
past. The question was whether
Nakagami was out of reach. He
was only 1.7 seconds away, and
