Scott Redding strengthened his position at the top of the Moto2 World Championship with his second victory in a row at Mugello. The Briton had his hands full with Nicolas Terol and Johann Zarco in the first half of the race but eased away in the closing laps to take a comfortable win by two seconds from the Spaniard with Zarco claiming the first podium finish of his Moto2 career in third.
After qualifying on pole position, Redding lost the lead immediately thanks to the fast start of Takaaki Nakagami alongside but the Marc VDS rider put a tremendous move on the Japanese at Poggio Secco with Terol taking advantage of the loss of momentum to take second. Zarco soon demoted Nakagami to fourth but the Italtrans rider wouldn’t be able to fight back after a crash at Scarperia sent him into retirement, leaving the top three along out front.
Terol, a winner here in 125s, leapfrogged Redding at the start of lap ten thanks to a slipstream down the home straight but the tactics of the Aspar rider would eventually cost him. As he has done in the past, Terol waved his pursuer past in the hope of following the leader and attacking later on but the slight opening was all Redding needed to make a break, and leave the Spaniard trailing. As Scott’s pace improved, Terol faded although he did have enough to see off the challenge of his old rival Zarco for second.
After a terrible start dropped him to thirteenth, Pol Espargaro displayed excellent speed and composure to carve his way through the field. A collision between Alex De Angelis and Xavier Simeon which eliminated the Belgian would promote him to sixth before a stunning move on the brakes took him past Mika Kallio and Jordi Torres to secure fourth on the penultimate lap. Simone Corsi was seventh after passing his Forward Racing teammate De Angelis late on while Thomas Luthi and Dominique Aegerter rounded out the top ten.
Esteve Rabat lost ground to Redding in the title chase after slipping into the San Donato gravel trap on lap six but he recovered to thirteenth in the end, salvaging three points, leaving Kyle Smith and Danny Kent behind as he made his way up the order.
