MOTOGP
2017 FIM MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
ROUND 12 / AUGUST 27, 2017
SILVERSTONE CIRCUIT / SILVERSTONE, GREAT BRITAIN
P78
His race, and probably his title
challenge, was over.
At this point, Nakagami was
more than a second adrift, but
he'd been drawing closer. Fast-
est in race-morning warm-up, he
was picking up pace as Mor-
bidelli was losing it. Within two of
the track's long laps he'd closed
right up on the blue bike, and on
lap 12 he sliced paced, with no
resistance from Morbidelli.
the first corner on lap seven.
Marquez took it back on the exit,
but at the end of the straight the
championship leader repeated
the attack, and this time it
worked.
Now it looked like a Marc VDS
one-two, with Morbidelli on the
front foot, but the drama was
beginning to build. Marquez had
got back ahead three laps later,
only to lose the front and crash.
Moto2
It started looking rather predict-
able, and ended up a thriller.
Takaaki Nakagami's first dry-
weather win was under threat to
the final corners, after several
changes of lead and turns of
fortune for the front runners in
the intermediate class.
Mattia Pasini (Italtrans Kalex)
was his final challenger, and he
came within an ace of reversing
a one-second lead in an epic
last lap.
Pasini had qualified on a third
straight pole, with the Marc
VDS Kalexes alongside, Franco
Morbidelli second and Marquez
third. Morbidelli's closest title
challenger Thomas Luthi (CarX-
pert Kalex) was in the middle of
the row behind.
It was Marquez who took off in
the lead, at such a pace that the
race threatened to be another
Moto2 procession.
Morbidelli was losing ground
behind him, but pulling clear of
fast-starting Luca Marini (For-
ward Kalex), who was ahead of
Pasini for the first lap, after the
Italian had a poor start. Naka-
gami's Idemitsu Kalex was fifth.
Marini would drop back, and
Nakagami got ahead of Pasini
for third on lap four, but by now
the Marc VDS pair were fully two
seconds clear.
By now also Morbidelli had
replied to Marquez's new record
on lap two with an even faster
time next time around, and had
closed. He shadowed him for
a few laps, and pounced into
Takaaki Nakagami (30) won Moto2 for the first time.
