Marc Marquez returned (from his injury) to Moto2 winning the Qatar GP.

The first 2012 race was action-packedfrom the beginning, with a huge train of bikes fighting for the lead throughout, before a final-lap showdown between Marquez, Thomas Luthi and Andrea Iannone.

Luthi, who started from pole position,had led at first, before being attacked by Pol Espargaro starting lap two. Both ran a little wide, allowing Marquez to slip through into the lead, as Luthi started a temporary slump down the order.

Espargaro, Iannone and Marquez then swapped the lead for a while, although the latter pair made life harder for themselves by running wide at Turn 1 on consecutive laps around half-distance and losing several places. That gave Espargaro another shot at leading, until Luthi worked his way back to the front on lap 14.

Marquez was soon back on Luthi’s tail, with Iannone right behind them. Marquez attacked starting the final lap, edging Luthi onto the kerb and sending him very wide.

Iannone briefly claimed the lead, but Marquez was able to slipstream back past on the run to the finish line, winning in his comeback race by just 0.061 seconds.

Espargaro beat Esteve Rabat to the final podium position. Luthi was only fifth.

Moto2 Qatar GP 2012 results:

source (text and results): (British) Autosport

picture: Marc Marquez Facebook page

From the outside of the front row Iannone (Speed Master Suter) passed Marquez (Catalunya Suter) on the run down to the first corner, the first move in a race-long battle between the pair.

Simone Corsi (Ioda FTR) and a charging Stefan Bradl, who had started eighth on the Kiefer Kalex, also got themselves involved, with the top four all covered by less than 1s.

On lap 7 Marquez found his way by Iannone on the pit straight, but that only spurred on the 22-year-old. He retook the lead several corners later and then set a series of fastest laps, with only Marquez able to stick with him.

Bradl meanwhile had worked his way past Corsi and looked like he may do enough to preserve a narrow championship advantage, until Thomas Luthi (Interwetten Suter) and Alex de Angelis (JIR Motobi) made it a four-way fight for third.

Bradl’s aggressive start was taking its toll, and he was picked off by Luthi and then Corsi, dropping him to fifth. He fought back on the last lap to snatch fourth from Corsi, but even so knew he would lose a championship lead held since the very first race.

The damage was nearly made worse as Iannone seemed to find neutral and surrendered a 1s gap to Marquez, but the Italian attacked instantly and passed Marquez again to take his third win of the year.

Marquez now leads Bradl by one point as a result, with three races remaining.

De Angelis came home sixth, ahead of Bradley Smith (Tech 3), Dominique Aegerter (Technomag-CIP Suter) and Esteve Rabat (Blusens FTR).

Home favourite Yuki Takahashi crashed from a fight for 12th on lap 6, while the Pons Kalex squad saw Aleix Espargaro struggle and pit with tyre issues and Axel Pons retire in the gravel six laps from the finish.

Results:

text and results: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/94995

picture: http://www.motogp.com/pt/photos/2011/Andrea+Iannone+Speed+Master+Motegi+RAC

125cc: Nico Terol dominates and wins the race

Nico Terol took his eighth 125cc victory of the season at Aragon and stretched his championship lead to 36 points.

His polesitting Aspar team-mate Hector Faubel did his utmost to stop Terol’s title rival Johann Zarco from getting second place, only to crash at the final corner.

Terol had moved ahead of Faubel to take the lead at the start and was not headed thereafter.

Zarco (Ajo Derbi) was shuffled back to sixth off the line, got back to third within half a lap, then dropped to fifth again as he battled with Blusens’ Maverick Vinales and Team Germany’s Sandro Cortese.

It took until lap five for Zarco to finally clear Vinales and set off after Faubel.

The Frenchman got past his Spanish rival on lap nine, but could not shake him off, and they continued to swap places as Terol pulled ever further away.

Zarco held the place going onto the last lap, with Faubel trying a final move into the last corner – only to lose control as he turned in and have a high-speed low-side. He appeared to escape serious injury, and Zarco avoided the crash and continued to take second, 7.4 seconds behind Terol.

Vinales was a lonely third in the end.

The battle for what became fourth was by far the highlight of the race, as a large pack of bikes repeatedly went three and four abreast in some amazingly bold dicing.

Luis Salom emerged in front, just ahead of Efren Vazquez, Cortese, Danny Kent and Alberto Moncayo. Louis Rossi had been part of this group too and contending for potentially his best 125cc result yet before crashing out.

Results:

Moto2: Marc Marquez wins in superb race

Marc Marquez reduced Stefan Bradl’s Moto2 championship lead to a mere six points by taking his seventh win of the season at Aragon, as a tyre problem for Bradl dropped him to eighth.

The title rivals had made a spectacular start to the race, launching into an immediate three-way battle with Scott Redding that included the lead being exchanged repeatedly on the first lap alone.

That level of frenetic dicing continued for the first two thirds of the race, with Andrea Iannone, Simone Corsi and Alex de Angelis joining in, and all taking a turn in the lead, as Aleix Espargaro, Julian Simon and Mike di Meglio started tagging onto the back of the train too.

Marquez kept fighting to the front of the pack but failing to break away – at one stage running wide off the track just as he seemed set to escape.

The crunch moment came on lap 14, when Speed Master rider Iannone made a big move on Marquez at the first corner, slid slightly off course, and narrowly avoided taking the race leader out while also breaking up the pack a little.

While Iannone accelerated back on in third place, Marquez got some clear air at last and started cruising away, going on to win by 2.466 seconds.

Iannone reclaimed second, with Corsi (Ioda) and de Angelis (JIR) chasing him home.

The rest of the erstwhile lead group became detached – and grew into an even bigger gaggle, with just 3.1s covering fifth to 17th places at the flag.

Bradl began to suffer a severe tyre problem with his Kiefer Kalex and drifted down the order to finish eighth, behind Espargaro, Bradley Smith and Thomas Luthi. Early leader Redding fell right back to 15th.

Results:

MotoGP: Casey Stoner wins with a clear margin

Casey Stoner leads the MotoGP standings by 44 points with four rounds to go after taking an utterly dominant eighth victory of the 2011 season in the Aragon Grand Prix.

Stoner’s practice and qualifying form had suggested he would be hard to beat in the race, and so it proved.

He was beaten off the line by Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa, and Yamaha’s Ben Spies then swept around both of them to take the lead at the first corner.

But by the end of lap one Stoner had overtaken both Pedrosa and Spies and was already storming away in a lead he would never lose, stretching his advantage to eight seconds over Pedrosa. The result was the 100th win for the Repsol/Honda alliance at the top level.

Stoner’s title rival Jorge Lorenzo at least managed to salvage third on the leading Yamaha. Marco Simoncelli (Gresini Honda) had fought through from sixth to third early on, before sliding onto the run-off at Turn 12 on lap 10 and falling back behind both Yamahas.

Spies had already lost second to Pedrosa, and his pace tailed off further as the race progressed – the American being overtaken by both Lorenzo and the recovering Simoncelli to end up fifth.

A big dice for sixth was ultimately won by Suzuki’s Alvaro Bautista, as he beat Hector Barbera’s Aspar Ducati and Nicky Hayden’s works example, the trio spreading out in the final laps after swapping places many times in the first half of the race.

Valentino Rossi initially made rapid progress from his pitlane start and was up to ninth by lap seven. But the Ducati could not catch the riders ahead after that, or shake off Cal Crutchlow (Tech 3 Yamaha) and Hiroshi Aoyama (Gresini Honda). In the closing stages both managed to pass the seven-time MotoGP champion, and though Rossi was able to reclaim 10th from Aoyama, Crutchlow was out of reach.

The race saw several incidents, starting at the first corner when Karel Abraham had a heavy crash on his Cardion AB Ducati, sending Randy de Puniet’s Pramac Ducati off course in avoidance. Works Honda man Andrea Dovizioso then had a solo fall a few corners later.

Loris Capirossi (Pramac) and Toni Elias (LCR Honda) tangled with seven laps to go when Capirossi clipped the back of Elias’ bike. Capirossi was initially in discomfort in the gravel trap but was eventually able to get up and walk away without help.

Results:

text and results at:

125cc race: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/94642

Moto2 race: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/94644

MotoGP race: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/94646

1st picture: http://www.motogp.com/pt/photos/season/2011/ARA/Sunday/125/

2nd picture: http://www.motogp.com/pt/photos/season/2011/ARA/Sunday/Moto2

3rd picture: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/94646

The title rivals were joined by Andrea Iannone and Scott Redding in a spectacular lead battle that raged for most of the 26 laps.

Bradl (Kiefer Kalex) had led from pole at the start but a mistake out of Turn 14 let Marquez (Catalunya Suter) and Redding (Marc VDS Suter) through. Redding then grabbed the lead from Marquez, who would lose places to Bradl and Iannone with a minor error of his own moments later.

Redding confidently pulled away in the lead, putting in his best Moto2 ride yet. It was a poignant and praiseworthy performance as the 18-year-old Briton returned to the track where he had been blamelessly involved in Shoya Tomizawa’s fatal accident 12 months ago, and took total control of the first half of the race.

Iannone, Marquez and Bradl would eventually reel Redding in. On lap 13, Speed Master rider Iannone attacked Redding but was successfully fended off – allowing Marquez to get between them, and then to grab first from Redding a few corners later.

Then when Iannone retaliated against Marquez, it was the Spaniard who lost momentum, allowing Bradl back through, with the German then overtaking Iannone on the next lap.

But when Iannone repassed Bradl for the lead with six laps to go, a close call between them saw the points leader fall to fourth again, with Marquez then passing Iannone next time around and starting to pull away.

Bradl got back up to second and began to chase Marquez down, taking Iannone with him, but they could not catch the reigning 125cc champion, who won by 0.619 seconds over Bradl and 0.713s over Iannone.

JIR’s Alex de Angelis, who had also been caught up in Tomizawa’s accident a year ago, came through to fourth ahead of Redding in the end, with Bradley Smith chasing his countryman to the flag in sixth having stayed with the leaders all race. Yuki Takahashi was part of this pack too and finished seventh.

Results:

race report, results: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/94240

picture: http://www.motogp.com/pt/photos/season/2011/RSM/Sunday/Moto2/#Marc-Marquez-Team-CatalunyaCaixa-Misano-RAC-527271

Just 0.4 seconds covered the three riders at the line, as they broke away from what had been a five-bike battle also involving Alex de Angelis and Andrea Iannone.

At first it had been Marquez and Smith escaping from the field together, before first Bradl, then the two Italians as well (Iannone flying through from 14th on the grid) joined them.

Bradl squeezed through to the front for the first time just before half-distance, but could not get away. Going into the closing laps, Marquez and Bradl would exchange the lead again and again, with Smith also sneaking into the lead for a few yards.

Marquez was back in front going onto the final lap, and despite points leader Bradl’s best efforts to get a better run to the line, the Spaniard held on. Smith was right with them, his third consecutive podium being his first in a dry Moto2 race.

Behind de Angelis and Iannone, Tom Luthi and Simone Corsi fought through to sixth and seventh from 24th and 23rd on the grid respectively. Max Neukirchner, taking his best Moto2 result yet, Aleix Espargaro, Kenan Sofuoglu and Dominique Aegerter chased them home.

Yonny Hernandez and Pol Espargaro were also fighting for top six positions early on before both fell in separate incidents.

Results:

text: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/92811

picture: http://www.motogp.com/pt/photos/season/2011/ITA/Sunday/Moto2/

Series leader and polesitter Stefan Bradl crashed out near the end of the race, but remains 57 points ahead of Marquez in the standings.

Bradl (Kiefer Kalex) struggled from the outset in the wet race, steadily slipping down the order from pole and falling as low as 13th. He managed to get back up to eighth before sliding out at the chicane in the closing stages.

Simone Corsi, Bradley Smith and Marquez set the early pace, although as conditions improved slightly Corsi would begin to fade, eventually tumbling right back to 14th.

Kenan Sofuoglu then moved up to join Smith and Marquez’s lead battle, with Yuki Takahashi shadowing them. All of the first three took turns in front amid some very close racing on the greasy track.

Takahashi picked his way through to second, only to crash on lap 20 of 24. Marquez was leading at that stage, and the accident gave him a little breathing space, as he inched away to win by 2.3 seconds over Sofuoglu – the Technomag-CIP rider securing his first Moto2 podium. Smith fell back from Sofuoglu as he claimed a second straight top-three finish in third.

Anthony West showed his usual outstanding wet weather form to come through from 21st to fourth on the MZ, a short distance ahead of the battling Alex de Angelis and Mattia Pasini.

Results of this race:

text, results: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/92613

picture: http://www.motogp.com/pt/photos/season/2011/NED/Saturday/Moto2/

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