Nov
8
Moto2 News
Outgoing Moto2 World Champion Rabat Victorious At Valencia
Posted: Monday, 9th November, 2015 : 7:32 AM – – 143 Reads
Outgoing Moto2 World Champion Tito Rabat (Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS Kalex) made a victorious return from injury and a victorious exit from the intermediate class with his 13th win the class at Valencia overnight.
Next week the 26-year-old will commence his MotoGP career with a two-day post-season test session at Valencia.
Rabat dominated the race – restarted after an earlier multiple crash – resisting mounting pressure from rookie of the year Alex Rins (Paginas Amarillas HP 40 Kalex) who was right behind him until the closing stages. Finally Rins relented, knowing that third place would be good enough to give him second overall ahead of Rabat, who had missed the previous three races due to an arm injury.
Rabat crossed the finish line three tenths of a second ahead of Rins, with Thomas Luthi (Derendinger Racing Interwetten Kalex) a further three seconds further back.
“I’m so happy, because I arrived here not knowing if I would be able to ride at the top level.” Rabat said. “But I felt good on the bike on Friday and it got better with every day.
“Okay, I’m still not 100% fit, but I’m fit enough to ride fast. Today was my last race in Moto2 and my last race with my crew, so it was great to say farewell to both with a win. I enjoyed the race; I just pushed on every lap and treated it like a sprint.
“I thought it was Lüthi behind me at the end, like last year, but then I looked back and saw Rins, so I knew he was going to challenge, and I knew I was going to hold him off.
“I learnt a lot this weekend; mainly that I need to give myself time to recover after an injury, but also that I maybe don’t need to do so many laps at home to be quick. Now we start the next adventure, with the MotoGP test on Tuesday and Wednesday.”
Luthi had been second in the early stages but didn’t have the pace to resist Rins and later had his hands full dealing with the very real threat of the up-and-coming Lorenzo Baldassarri (Forward Racing Kalex), who he bettered by lessthan three tenths of a second.
Sam Lowes (Speed Up Racing Speed Up) was a comfortable fifth to secure fourth overall in the championship behind Johann Zarco (Ajo Motorsport Kalex), who could only manage a seventh-place finish today, Rins and Rabat. Zarco finished the race a fraction behind Rins’ team-mate Luis Salom (Paginas Amarillas HP 40 Kalex).
Axel Pons (AGR Team Kalex) was eighth, just 11 seconds behind the winner, with Simone Corsi (Forward Racing Kalex) and Mika Kallio (QMMF Racing Team Speed Up).
Moto2 Round 18 Race Results
1 Esteve Rabat 28’48.831 ESP HONDA Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS
2 Alex Rins 0.309 ESP HONDA Paginas Amarillas HP 40
3 Thomas Luthi 3.347 SWI HONDA Derendinger Racing Interwetten
4 Lorenzo Baldassarri 3.644 ITA HONDA Athina Forward Racing
5 Sam Lowes 5.140 GBR HONDA Speed Up Racing
6 Luis Salom 9.499 ESP HONDA Paginas Amarillas HP 40
7 Johann Zarco 9.834 FRA HONDA Ajo Motorsport
8 Axel Pons 11.197 SPA HONDA AGR Team
9 Simone Corsi 11.611 ITA HONDA Athina Forward Racing
10 Mika Kallio 17.311 FIN HONDA Italtrans Racing Team
11 Takaaki Nakagima 20.784 JPN HONDA Idemitsu Honda Team Asia
12 Alex Marquez 21.296 ESP HONDA Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS
13 Sandro Cortese 21.455 GER HONDA Dynavolt Intact GP
14 Jonas Folger 21.560 GER HONDA AGR Team
15 Marcel Schrotter 24.669 GER HONDA Tech 3
Final Moto2 Championship standings
1 Johann Zarco 352 pts
2 Alex Rins 234 pts
3 Esteve Rabat 231 pts
4 Sam Lowes 186 pts
5 Thomas Luthi 179 pts
6 Jonas Folger 163 pts
7 Xavier Simeon 113 pts
8 Takaaki Nakagima 100 pts
9 Lorenzo Baldassarri 96 pts
10 Franco Morbidelli 90 pts
11 Sandro Cortese 90 pts
12 Simone Corsi 86 pts
13 Luis Salom 80 pts
14 Alex Marquez 73 pts
15 Mika Kallio 72 pts
22 Anthony West 30 pts
Top Image: Esteve (Tito) Rabat won the season ending Moto2 race in Valencia
Comments
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.