Marc Marquez blew the Moto2 championship race wide open with a supreme victory in the Indianapolis Grand Prix to eat into Stefan Bradl's overall lead. The German put in a superb ride of his own to take sixth but paid the price for his lowly grid position as Marquez reduced his advantage to 28 points.
The German was 22nd as the red lights went out but all eyes were on the man in fourth as Bradley Smith got another lightning start to lead around the first corner. The Briton put a brave move around the outside of Marquez and Simone Corsi followed him through into second at the next corner.
Smith wouldn't lead over the yard of bricks though as Corsi drafted past him on the start/finish straight before Marquez and Andrea Iannone demoted Smith to fourth by the end of lap three. The Tech 3 youngster kept himself in touch though while Esteve Rabat closed in to make it a five-way dice for the lead.
Corsi's resistance was broken on lap eight as Marquez took him on the inside of turn one. The Ioda Racing FTR was clearly in some difficulty and a moment on the next lap saw another five places disappear. Iannone took over second while Rabat moved up to third ahead of Smith.
The leading group was getting bigger and bigger with Pol Espargaro and Scott Redding also hauling themselves into contention but Corsi was in freefall and soon came under pressure from the recovering Bradl.
The next man to hit problems in the sweltering conditions was Iannone who lost his grip on second to Rabat while Espargaro followed him through. 12 laps were still remaining and the all-British battle between Smith and Redding swallowed him up too, as did Bradl on lap 22.
The race had now settled down and Marquez duly cruised home to his fifth win of the year. Rabat and Espargaro made sure the rostrum was an all-Spanish affair, claiming their first ever Moto2 podiums in the process.
Smith came home in an excellent fourth while Redding matched his best result of the season in fifth. Bradl managed to limit the damage to sixth place with Julian Simon following him home in seventh. Mattia Pasini avoided the problems that plagued teammate Corsi to finish eighth with Mika Kallio ninth and Aleix Espargaro tenth to complete a wonderful day for his particular family.
Iannone's capitulation resulted in 11th place while Corsi suffered so badly that he only managed to score two points for 14th. Alex de Angelis had a rare off-day in 15th while Thomas Luthi and Yuki Takahashi were among the big names that toiled home outside the points.
Race Result (26 Laps):
Pos | Rider | Nat | Bike | Team | Time/Gap |
1 | Marc Marquez | SPA | Suter | Team Catalunya Caixa Repsol | 45:50.601 |
2 | Pol Espargaro | SPA | FTR | HP Tuenti Speed Up | +1.889 |
3 | Esteve Rabat | SPA | FTR | Blusens-STX | +2.310 |
4 | Bradley Smith | GBR | Tech 3 | Tech 3 Racing | +3.389 |
5 | Scott Redding | GBR | Suter | Marc VDS Racing Team | +5.674 |
6 | Stefan Bradl | GER | Kalex | Viessman Kiefer Racing | +9.134 |
7 | Julian Simon | SPA | Suter | Mapfre Aspar Team Moto2 | +9.347 |
8 | Mattia Pasini | ITA | FTR | Ioda Racing Project | +15.010 |
9 | Mika Kallio | FIN | Suter | Marc VDS Racing Team | +15.031 |
10 | Aleix Espargaro | SPA | Pons Kalex | Pons HP 40 | +15.339 |
11 | Andrea Iannone | ITA | Suter | Speed Master | +17.447 |
12 | Dominique Aegerter | SWI | Suter | Technomag-CIP | +21.727 |
13 | Xavier Simeon | BEL | Tech 3 | Tech 3 B | +24.279 |
14 | Simone Corsi | ITA | FTR | Ioda Racing Project | +25.714 |
15 | Alex de Angelis | RSM | Motobi | JIR Moto2 | +26.894 |
16 | Jules Cluzel | FRA | Suter | NGM Forward Racing | +27.375 |
17 | Thomas Luthi | SWI | Suter | Interwetten Paddock Moto2 | +27.546 |
18 | Jordi Torres | SPA | Suter | Mapfre Aspar Team Moto2 | +27.764 |
19 | Ricard Cardus | SPA | Moriwaki | QMMF Racing Team | +27.946 |
20 | Michele Pirro | ITA | Moriwaki | Gresini Racing Moto2 | +29.362 |
21 | Randy Krummenacher | SWI | Kalex | GP Team Switzerland Kiefer Racing | +31.701 |
22 | Claudio Corti | ITA | Suter | Italtrans Racing Team | +32.030 |
23 | Raffaele de Rosa | ITA | Suter | NGM Forward Racing | +32.100 |
24 | Max Neukirchner | GER | MZ-RE Honda | MZ Racing Team | +36.387 |
25 | Yuki Takahashi | JAP | Moriwaki | Gresini Racing Moto2 | +37.801 |
26 | Anthony West | AUS | MZ-RE Honda | MZ Racing Team | +42.146 |
27 | Mike Di Meglio | FRA | Tech 3 | Tech 3 Racing | +53.491 |
28 | Martin Cardenas | COL | FTR | Blusens-STX | +58.947 |
29 | JD Beach | USA | FTR | Aeroport de Castello | +1:04.334 |
30 | Valentin Debise | FRA | FTR | Speed Up | +1:12.230 |
31 | Jacob Gagne (WC) | USA | FTR | GPTech | +1:12.503 |
32 | Robertino Pietri | VEN | Suter | Italtrans Racing Team | +1:15.177 |
33 | Santiago Hernandez | COL | FTR | SAG Team | +1:15.899 |
34 | Alex Baldolini | ITA | Pons Kalex | Pons HP 40 | +1:37.102 |
35 | Mashel Al Naimi | QAT | Moriwaki | QMMF Racing Team | +1 Lap |
Not Classified | |||||
Ratthapark Wilairot | THA | FTR | Thai Honda Singha SAG | +5 Laps | |
Carmelo Morales | SPA | Suter | Desguaces La Torre G22 | +11 Laps | |
Kenny Noyes | USA | FTR | Avintia-STX | +19 Laps | |
Kenan Sofuoglu | TUR | Suter | Technomag-CIP | Non Starter |
Lap Leaders (26 Laps):
Corsi (1-7), Marquez (8-26)
Riders' Championship (After Round 11: Indianapolis)
Pos | Rider | Nat | Bike | Team | Wins | Pts |
1 | Stefan Bradl | GER | Kalex | Viessman Kiefer Racing | 4 | 193 |
2 | Marc Marquez | SPA | Suter | Team Catalunya Caixa Repsol | 5 | 165 |
3 | Andrea Iannone | ITA | Suter | Speed Master | 2 | 96 |
4 | Alex de Angelis | RSM | Motobi | JIR Moto2 | 96 | |
5 | Simone Corsi | ITA | FTR | Ioda Racing Project | 93 | |
6 | Bradley Smith | GBR | Tech 3 | Tech 3 Racing | 92 | |
7 | Thomas Luthi | SWI | Suter | Interwetten Paddock Moto2 | 88 | |
8 | Yuki Takahashi | JAP | Moriwaki | Gresini Racing Moto2 | 62 | |
9 | Esteve Rabat | SPA | FTR | Blusens-STX | 62 | |
10 | Julian Simon | SPA | Suter | Mapfre Aspar Team Moto2 | 58 | |
11 | Aleix Espargaro | SPA | Pons Kalex | Pons HP 40 | 54 | |
12 | Randy Krummenacher | SWI | Kalex | GP Team Switzerland Kiefer Racing | 52 | |
13 | Kenan Sofuoglu | TUR | Suter | Technomag-CIP | 45 | |
14 | Dominique Aegerter | SWI | Suter | Technomag-CIP | 45 | |
15 | Michele Pirro | ITA | Moriwaki | Gresini Racing Moto2 | 43 | |
16 | Pol Espargaro | SPA | FTR | HP Tuenti Speed Up | 36 | |
17 | Scott Redding | GBR | Suter | Marc VDS Racing Team | 36 | |
18 | Jules Cluzel | FRA | Suter | NGM Forward Racing | 35 | |
19 | Yonny Hernandez | COL | FTR | Blusens-STX | 33 | |
20 | Max Neukirchner | GER | MZ-RE Honda | MZ Racing Team | 32 | |
21 | Mattia Pasini | ITA | FTR | Ioda Racing Project | 26 | |
22 | Anthony West | AUS | MR-RE Honda | MZ Racing Team | 18 | |
23 | Mika Kallio | FIN | Suter | Marc VDS Racing Team | 18 | |
24 | Alex Baldolini | ITA | Pons Kalex | Pons HP 40 | 18 | |
25 | Kev Coghlan | GBR | FTR | Aeroport de Castello | 11 | |
26 | Claudio Corti | ITA | Suter | Italtrans Racing Team | 9 | |
27 | Xavier Simeon | BEL | Tech 3 | Tech 3 B | 9 | |
28 | Mike Di Meglio | FRA | Tech 3 | Tech 3 Racing | 8 | |
29 | Ratthapark Wilairot | THA | FTR | Thai Honda Singha SAG | 4 | |
30 | Ricard Cardus | SPA | Moriwaki | QMMF Racing Team | 2 | |
31 | Axel Pons | SPA | Pons Kalex | Pons HP 40 | 1 |