Alex Rins converted pole position into victory at the Circuit of the Americas after seeing off the challenge of Sam Lowes. The pair were closely matched throughout but Rins prevailed to close to within a point of the Briton who now leads the championship after Thomas Luthi could only manage seventh.
Rins led away from pole position but a slow getaway left Lowes with work to do with the Briton falling to fourth. Some typically aggressive overtaking saw Sam repair the damage on lap two with Dominique Aegerter losing third courtesy of a brave move at turn five while Johann Zarco was overhauled at the end of the back straight.
The gap at the front had already opened up beyond a second but Lowes smashed the lap record to bring himself back into play, just half a second behind the Spaniard. Try as he might though, the Gresini rider was unable to launch a genuine attack on the Paginas Amarillas Kalex and the classy Rins held on for his third Moto2 win.
With the top in a class of their own, the battle for third provided much of the afternoon’s entertainment with Zarco coming under pressure from a queue of riders. Thomas Luthi looked to have stolen a march over the Frenchman but the Interwetten rider faded badly in the closing stages, relinquishing third to Johann five laps from home. A collision between Simone Corsi and Takaaki Nakagami at turn one a lap later would create a split in the group, giving Zarco just enough breathing space to secure the final rostrum position.
Aegerter came on strong in the final three laps to take fourth ahead of Jonas Folger while Corsi slipped to sixth after his incident at the top of the hill. Luthi’s lack of late-race pace dropped him all the way to seventh ahead of the QMMF Speed Ups of Xavier Simeon and Julian Simon but Nakagami fell even further after his clash with Corsi, leaving him with the final point for fifteenth.
Moto2 Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas (Race Result)
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