Enea Bastianini defeated Luca Marini to secure his first ever Moto2 success in the Andalucian grand prix at Jerez.
Bastianini snatched the lead from pole-man Marco Bezzecchi on the opening lap, the Italtrans racer diving past at Turn 6 with a tough move.
Bezzecchi’s VR46 team-mate Luca Marini followed through to take second just a few seconds later at Turn 9, quickly turning his attentions to the escaping Bastianini.
The Italian looked to have the race under control in the early stages, pulling a near six-tenth gap to Marini as the race entered its middling stages.
Marini-who secured victory at Jerez in last weekend’s Spanish GP- began to edge closer to Bastianini though, closing right onto the back of the blue Kalex and began to mount on the pressure.
He looked significantly quicker for a period of the race, nearly diving down the inside of Bastianini at Turn 9 but deciding against it.
This ultimately became the turning point of the contest as Bastianini continued to hold firm, and then beginning to pull away once again as the race entered its final third.
The two-time Moto2 podium finisher continued to escape Marini across the final laps, taking the chequered flag by a comfortable 2.1 seconds.
Marini was then involved in a strange collision with third placed team-mate Bezzecchi on the cooling down lap, the pair closing up to celebrate before their two machines got tangled together, causing both to go down in embarrassing style.
Sam Lowes remained within striking distance of the podium throughout the 23 lap encounter after recovering from an avergae start, but was never able to mount a sustained charge on Bezzecchi to worry the VR46 pilot and took a strong fourth just six-tenths back.
Aron Canet enjoyed a lonely race to take fifth on his Aspar-run Speed Up machine, while Jorge Martin was sixth for the KTM-backed Ajo outfit.
Thomas Luthi bounced back from his crash in last week’s Jerez outing to take solid points in seventh ahead of Xavi Vierge, while the second Intact GP bike of Marcel Schrotter lost ninth to the MV Agusta of Stefano Manzi by just 0.063 at the death.
Championship leader Tetsuta Nagashima came home in a quiet 11th after struggling with an injury picked up during Friday practice, the second of the Ajo racers just clinging onto the points lead by two over Bastianini, with Marini a further three back.
Second-placed points man Lorenzo Baldassarri suffered a miserable Andalucian GP by crashing out at Turn 9 in the closing laps, in a similar vein to Jorge Navarro who crashed out once again like he did in the previous Jerez race last weekend.
Augusto Fernandez continued to struggle for speed on the second Marc VDS machine as he came home a lowly 12th, getting the better of Remy Gardner late on as the Aussie began to fade.
Marcos Ramirez-the only Andalucian rider on the grid- manage to break through and score his first ever Moto2 point with a decent ride to 15th, beating the likes of Joe Roberts and Fabio Di Gianantonio to the position.
