Johann Zarco continues to close in on the 2015 Moto2 world championship after another outstanding victory at Silverstone. The points leader coped best with a drying track and worn tyres to hold off a fast-closing Alex Rins while Tito Rabat pipped Alex Marquez to the final rostrum position.
Despite a dramatic crash at the end of qualifying which left him with bruising, Tito Rabat was in an aggressive mood early in proceedings and stormed into an early lead, barging Zarco off the circuit at Vale in the process. As others began to adjust to the tricky conditions, the world champion settled back in to fourth behind Rins, Zarco, his teammate Marquez and ahead of Thomas Luthi and Jonas Folger.
The leading group would soon be stretched out though once Zarco had regrouped and on lap seven, the Frenchman scythed past Rins at Brooklands to take the lead. From that point on, there appeared to be no challenging as the Ajo rider upped his pace to a level that no-one else could get to within a second off, let alone match.
The only rider seemingly able to set similar lap times was German rookie Florian Alt who had pitted early on for slicks and lost a lap. As a result, he soon found himself slicing through the group fighting for second, taking advantage of Rabat’s tyres looking very second-hand. In the confusion, Rins picked his opportunity to grab second with five laps remaining.
It was at this stage that Zarco’s pace began to drop off, along with several chunks of rubber from his rear tyre. In the space of a couple of laps, the Spaniard cut Johann’s lead in half, giving him three laps to make up a four second deficit, but the title favourite responded like a potential champion and eased home to his fifth victory of the season.
Jonas Folger was fifth while Sam Lowes’ race never recovered from a disastrous first lap where he was swallowed up by the pack. The home favourite eventually recovered to sixth ahead of Anthony West and Sandro Cortese with Thomas Luthi and Ricard Cardus rounding out the top ten.
