2010 Catalunya Moto2 Race Result - Comfortable Winner In Bizarre Incident-Ridden Contest

Results and summary of the Moto2 race at Barcelona:

Yuki Takahashi took the first victory for the Tech 3 Moto2 team at the Catalunya Grand Prix, after an utterly bizarre race which was strewn with crashes, yellow flags and ride throughs from the very beginning. 

The trouble started in the first corner: Thomas Luthi got the holeshot ahead of Toni Elias, with Yuki Takahashi bringing up the rear, but on the way into Turn 1, Alex Debon tried to make up too many places in one go, and possibly hampered by the shoulder and hand injuries the Aeroport de Castello rider is carrying, couldn't make it into the corner. In the ensuing carnage, five or six riders went down, and at least another twenty were forced off line, and out wide, with only the first six or seven making it through unscathed.

While Luthi was starting to eke a gap at the front, FIMMCO Speed Up's Andrea Iannone was battering his way past Julian Simon and Yuki Takahashi, but his pass on the Tech 3 rider happened under the yellow flag, which were still be waved after the first corner incident. That pass would come to haunt Iannone, as he forged into the lead, passing Elias and Luthi at the end of lap 3.

Iannone was ordered to give up the position he had gained under yellow, but the Italian either did not understand or ignored the instructions being issued by race direction and his team. After 5 laps, he was called in for a ride through, giving up the lead and rejoining in 17th, eventually finishing the race in 13th.

With Iannone out of the way, Yuki Takahashi inherited the lead, and having built up a 2 second gap after passing Thomas Luthi and Julian Simon on lap 7, went on to win comfortably. Behind Takahashi, Simon and Luthi battled it out for 2nd, the Interwetten rider coming out on top, leaving Simon to settled for 3rd on the Mapfre Aspar bike.

The crash on the first lap was not to be the last: of the 42 starters, just 26 were to cross the line. Many riders hit the deck, Niccolo Canepa among the most spectacular, his Force GP210 bike catching flame as it tumbled through the gravel. Most terrifying, though was the finish line incident between Jack&Jones rider Kenny Noyes and Tenerife Pons' Carmelo Morales. Morales came out of the final corner right on the tail of Noyes, and tried to change his line and come past on the other side as they hit the straight. But Morales was too close, and hit Noyes' back wheel, locking his own front wheel and flipping himself over the handlebars. Morales was clipped by the bike on the way down, then had his Kalex land on his back as it tumbled along the start and finish line. Though very badly beaten up, the initial word on Morales was that he was relatively OK. Noyes crossed the line in 7th, having made up 21 places after getting caught up in the first corner melee.

Results: