Alex Marquez took his third win in a row this weekend at the Catalan Grand Prix after a stunning performance in front of his home crowd. Marquez took the 25 points and with this took the lead of the championship after Lorenzo Baldassarri crashed out of the race.
History was made on Saturday, when Pons HP40 rider, Augusto Fernandez, took his maiden Moto2 pole around the Montmelo circuit. However, it was Tom Luthi who took the holeshot on the run into the first turn.
Luthi lead up until lap five after making a rare mistake that allowed Fernandez to take the lead. Fernandez could only hold on to the lead for a lap with Luthi forcing his way back passed at turn one at the start of the seventh lap.
Further back, Marquez had fought his way up to second and was closing down the leading duo whilst Fabio Di Giannantonio and Jorge Navarro sat in third and fifth, this was up until Di Giannantonio tipped off out of third on lap 11.
Marquez had caught both Luthi and Fernandez by the end of lap seven and wasted no time getting passed the 21-year-old from Madrid on the run into turn one.
Marquez then shadowed the experienced Luthi for a handful of laps before making his first attempt on taking the lead at turn one. Luthi kept the pressure on Marquez but several mistakes from the Swiss rider allowed the Estrella Galicia 0,0 rider to escape.
Navarro had made his way up into third and was closing down Fernandez, Navarro made the pass on Fernandez and started closing the gap to Luthi who could no longer match the pace of the leader.
Marquez cruised home for his third win in a row ahead of Luthi and Jorge Navarro, Augusto Fernandez eventually finished in fourth blace.
Further back, Enea Bastianini took the fifth position with a big battle won by Luca Marini (6th) who got the better of Marcel Schrotter and Xavi Vierge whilst Sam Lowes had dropped off the pack in ninth.
Completing the top 10 was Japanese rider Tetsuta Nagashima on the sole SAG bike across the line after his teammate Remy Gardner was wiped out the race on the opening lap by Lorenzo Balsassarri, who later crashed at turn 10, taking his third non-finish of the year.
The leading KTM rider home was Brad Binder in eleventh and was just ahead of second Italtrans rider Andrea Locatelli. Nicolo Bulega was a further 2 seconds back, finishing in thirteenth place ahead of Simone Corsi and Jorge Martin completed the top fifteen.
With Marquez taking the win and Baldassarri taking no points, Marquez now leads the championship lead by seven points over Tom Luthi, with Lorenzo Baldassari slipping to third, twenty-two points behind Marquez.
The Moto2 championship is set to resume in Assen on June 28-30th after their one day test (18th June) at the Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya.
