2010 Silverstone Moto2 Race Result: Race-Long Battle Decided By Last-Lap Mistake

Results and summary of the Moto2 race at Silverstone:

Jules Cluzel has won the first race of the day at Silverstone, taking his own maiden victory after a race-long scrap at the front.

The Forward Racing rider capitalized on his front row starts, slotting in behind his teammate and polesitter Claudio Corti. Corti and Cluzel were joined at the front by Fonsi Nieto, Julian Simon and Xavier Simeon in the early laps, with Nieto stuffing his HolidayGym Moriwaki into the lead on lap 2.

But with a huge group all battling at the front - eight or nine riders entering corners four abreast at one point - an opportunity was bound to arise, and arise it did around lap 6. Corti, Cluzel and Simon got a break, edging away at the front while Alex Debon and Shoya Tomizawa got in each other's way and held the chasing group up.

The leading trio soon had a 2.5 second lead, but they fell prey to the same predicament that had allowed them to escape in the first place. While they scrapped it out, Interwetten's Thomas Luthi and MarcVDS' Scott Redding - both of whom had fought their way forward from way down on the grid - were catching them, and rapidly.

By lap 14, Luthi and Redding were upon the leaders, and Luthi was on a mission. Picking his way forward lap by lap, Luthi took advantage of the two Forward Racing and one Mapfre Aspar Suter's all tripping each other up. A couple of laps later, and Luthi was leading, with Corti, Cluzel and Simon still not agreed over the right to chase the Interwetten Moriwaki.

With the scrapping for 2nd so fierce, something had to give, and that something was Claudio Corti. The polesitter was trying just a little too hard, and paid the penalty on the bumps down at Club, crashing out and leaving Cluzel, Simon and Redding to chase Luthi. Cluzel caught Luthi, but did not look capable of passing, until a small mistake - Luthi nearly highsiding out in the infield section on the last lap - let Cluzel past, to take over the win.

With less than a third of a lap to go, it was too late to come back, and Cluzel held Luthi off to take the win. The Swiss rider crossed the line in 2nd, ahead of the Aspar bike of Simon, leaving Scott Redding the misery of missing out on his home podium by the smallest of margins.

Results: