MotoGP Motegi - Espargaro crowned champ as crash robs Redding

Pol Espargaro has been crowned Moto2 World Champion at Motegi's MotoGP round after a second corner crash robbed Scott Redding of the chance to fight for the title.

Pol Espargaro has been crowned Moto2 World Champion at Motegi's MotoGP round after a second corner crash robbed Scott Redding of the chance to fight for the title.

Redding went down when Esteve Rabat fell in front of him and although he left the circuit medical centre with minor injuries before pitlane closed, his bike was too badly damaged to make the re-start.

"When Tito went down in front of me I did everything I could to avoid him, but I couldn't avoid hitting the bike and I went down too. It's disappointing, obviously, not just because of everything we've been through just to race here this weekend but also because there was nobody left to take the fight to Pol with both Tito and me out of the race," said Redding.

"The championship's gone and, although it wasn't through want of trying, that doesn't make it an easier to accept. The important thing is to get over it, come back strong and finish the season on a high at Valencia. Congratulations to Pol on winning the title; it was a good battle and I'm just sorry we couldn't take it down to the wire."

Under clear skies and with ambient temperatures of 20 degrees Celsius, it was a clean start to proceedings until a crash occurred on the exit of the second corner; Redding, Rabat (Tuenti HP 40) and Alex Mariñelarena (Blusens Avintia) were involved in a and none of the trio would restart. At Turn 3, Dominique Aegerter suffered a separate incident but the Technomag carXpert rider was able to rejoin the grid following a red flag stoppage.

On the first of 15 laps for the restarted race, Espargaro took the lead from MarcVDS’ Kallio and would not be headed for the rest of the afternoon. This left the Finn second from a pole position start, with Interwetten Paddock Moto2’s Tom Luthi on the podium for the third race in a row and the sixth time this season.

Xavier Simeon (Maptaq SAG Zelos Team) and Julian Simon (Italtrans Racing Team) completed the top five from Aspar Team Moto2’s Nico Terol, NGM Mobile Forward Racing’s Alex de Angelis and Italtrans Racing Team’s Takaaki Nakagami – the leading Japanese rider in his home event. It was a race of high attrition, with no less than nine riders failing to make the finish, although the aforementioned Aegerter impressively fought back to eighth position after running last at the restart.

Gino Rea also finished in the points, taking 14th place for the second weekend in a row while Danny Kent did not start after breaking his collarbone in a warm-up accident.

By MotoGP desk

Image by Bonnie Lane