Andrea Iannone
Another damp-but-getting-wetter race saw the Moto2 field take to the Jerez track.
A great start from Moto2 rookie Bradley Smith saw him take an early lead in the race but Thomas Luthi wanted to get past and it didn’t take him long to get through.
After that a ding-dong battle ensued throughout the race between various riders. Smith lost out quite quickly and the battle for second was between Iannone and Corsi before Iannone cleared off leaving Corsi to then battle it out with Yuki Takahashi, and they were swapping positions nearly every corner.
Early leader Bradley Smith lost places quite quickly and was hanging on to the coat tales of the leading group, still fantastic for his second race on a 4-stroke Moto2 bike.
An accident on lap 11 saw Cluzel run on the white lines and start losing the bike but not any speed and, unfortunately, he ran into the back of Marc Marquez, skittling him out. Marquez had to be stretchered off but is ok, though two crashes in two races is an awful start to the season for the 125cc champion.
Cluzel did find Marquez in the pits later to apologise which was sporting and taken as such.
Iannone took about 4 or 5 laps to catch the leader Luthi. He spent a lap following him before stuffing it down the inside on the straight to take the lead on lap 14 and clear off, increasing his lead virtually every lap.
At the start of the race, Alex De Angelis seemed to have some kind of clutch issue and lurched forward, he prevented the bike from stalling, almost missed the green light and was then given a ride-through penalty for his trouble.
Having said that, he cut through the field like a hot knife through butter and finished in an excellent seventh position.
Bradl, who was in front of Smith for a long time in the race, had a big moment with just two laps to go that allowed Bradley Smith to get through and he kept his cool for an excellent fourth place finish.
Join the discussion on this story in our forum
