Thomas Luthi surprises at Silverstone and Johann Zarco returns to his old ways

2023 Author: Nicholas Abramson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-09-01 00:14

The swiss Thomas luthi has won an unexpected victory in the Moto2 British Grand Prix, in a race marked by an action by Johann Zarco that ended Sam Lowes on the floor, and that cost the French a 30-second penalty that left him out of the points.

The Italian Franco Morbidelli took second place after a nice final fight with the Japanese Takaaki nakagami, which completed the podium. Spaniard Álex Rins, who was convalescing after fracturing his clavicle, is only ten points behind Zarco after finishing seventh.

Thomas Luthi returns and Álex Rins takes a breath

Despite the good start of poleman Sam Lowes, the command was taken from the beginning by Jonas Folger, motivated after his victory in Brno. The German went on to command the operations followed by Lowes and Johann Zarco, until a small scare made him give up the position with the British. While, Isaac Viñales made a great start but went to the ground in the first round.

Thomas Luthi was the unexpected winner, aided by a maneuver by Johann Zarco that put Sam Lowes, the clear favorite, on the floor.

A leading quintet was beginning to form. Lowes tried to leave but Zarco passed Folger to avoid it, while they were joined by Hafizh Syahrin and Álex Márquez. Franco Morbidelli was trying to become the sixth man, and behind him were stiff Thomas Luthi and Simone Corsi, who was about to bring down the Swiss. Far behind, Álex Rins was traveling in 20th position, clearly weighed down by his injured clavicle.

Márquez and Morbidelli had a clear upward progression, and they accounted for Syahrin and Folger to stick to the wheel of a Zarco whose sole mission was to prevent Lowes from escaping, dominator of all the training sessions of the weekend. Morbidelli surpassed his companion, who nonetheless seemed to finally bury his ghosts … until he fell to the ground. Back to the old ways.

However, the group not only did not fragment, but expanded to seven with the arrival of Takaaki Nakagami, who joined Lowes, Zarco, Morbidelli, Folger, Luthi and Syahrin. Among the seven, the one who arrived unleashed was Luthi, who surpassed Zarco and Lowes to take the lead. Sam looked surprised and immediately fell to third position when he was passed by the Frenchman.

Franco Morbidelli and Takaaki Nakagami finished on the podium, but fighting for second place allowed Luthi to escape.

The alarms in the british box, which was also surpassed by Morbidelli. There he stayed for a lap, until he went on the attack and regained third position in the face of stiff opposition from the Italian. From behind, it seemed that Rins was more comfortable and recovered positions until placing tenth, but by then the first nine were already far behind.

In the lead, Luthi had upped the ante and already only Zarco, Lowes and Morbidelli seemed to be able to follow. Nakagami, Syahrin and Folger were slightly cut off, a triplet that Lorenzo Baldassarri was trying to get closer to. Replacement of his previous doubts and showing that he had something in store, Lowes went on the attack and surpassed Zarco and ready to go for Luthi to win before his audience.

Far from giving up, Zarco returned the coin and tried to sneak inside. But Lowes had his place and instead of cutting gas, Johann was moving Sam to throw him to the ground, which forced him to a rectum that made him lose several seconds and descend to seventh place. An action more typical of that 125cc Zarco than of the current champion of the category.

The seventh place of Álex Rins tastes of glory, since he cuts half of the disadvantage with Zarco in a GP to which he arrived injured with the intention of minimizing damage.

This maneuver allowed Luthi, helped by the fight that Morbidelli and Nakagami started, who locked each other for second position, allowing the Swiss to take a few tenths that would already be final to give him his second win it's from the season. Morbidelli beat Nakagami, who defended his podium position from Syahrin's attacks, with Folger fifth.

Zarco reached Baldassarri to enter the finish line sixth, but it would be sanctioned with 30 seconds for irresponsible driving, which sent him to the 22nd position. Thus, Baldassari inherited the sixth place, with Alex Rins seventh after beating Simone Corsi on the last lap. Mattia Pasini and Axel Pons completed the top ten, with Xavi Vierge 13th, Julián Simón 14th, Iker Lecuona 19th, Edgar Pons 23rd and Álex Márquez 25th after rejoining the race.