Andrea Iannone stormed through from 11th on the grid to take a stunning victory in a wet Spanish Moto2 Grand Prix. The Italian produced a typically explosive performance to catch and pass Thomas Luthi, eventually winning by nearly eight seconds.
Bradley Smith was one of the stars yet again as he took an excellent fourth, ahead of polesitter Stefan Bradl. The Tech3 rider made another lightning start and actually led the race at the end of the first lap after diving past Luthi and Yuki Takahashi, with Bradl dropping to sixth.
Iannone wasn't the only man charging through the field. Incredibly, Simone Corsi made it all the way from 18th on the grid to take the lead from Smith as early as lap three. Luthi followed him through as Takahashi began to put the Brit under pressure. Meanwhile Iannone had demoted Bradl to seventh.
Any hopes the top four had of getting away were extinguished when Iannone dived past Jules Cluzel, and he started to haul himself up to the lead group. By lap seven he was right with them and after some aggressive overtaking, he disposed with Takahashi, Smith and Corsi in the space of a lap to take second. The four-way battle for second became a three-way scrap on lap 10, as Takahashi crashed out.
Behind them, Marc Marquez was recovering from a poor start and was past Cluzel for sixth, but an error from the Frenchman on lap 11 took both of them out of the race, leaving the Spaniard with no points from two races, despite some stunning performances.
At half distance, Iannone was right with Luthi and wrong-footed the Swiss rider on the pit straight. As Luthi looked left, the Italian breezed past him on the right to take the lead, a lead that he never looked like surrendering.
Intent on keeping his championship lead, Bradl was on the rampage. The accident involving Cluzel and Marquez had lifted him up to fifth and he closed in on Smith. The German moved into fourth on lap 18 and set his sights on the final podium position being held by Corsi.
With the laps ticking down, Bradl started to suffer though and Smith came back at him. The Brit was gifted back fourth place with two laps to go as Bradl lost contol of his Kalex machine, but thankfully kept it upright and survived to take fifth.
Julian Simon rode a lonely race to sixth while Alex de Angelis finished seventh despite a ride-through penalty for jumping the start. Scot Kev Coghlan stayed out of trouble to claim his best Grand Prix result in eighth, holding off Gresini Racing's Michele Pirro.
Scott Redding had a disappointing ride as he struggled in the wet conditions, finishing out of the points in 23rd.
