Karel Abraham took his first and only Moto2 victory in the season finale at Valencia today, before moving to MotoGP next year with his own team.

The Czech rider came out on top in last lap thriller that saw five riders, Andrea Iannone, Julian Simon, Abraham, Toni Elias and Thomas Luthi all going for the win, but it was claimed by Abraham who was riding in fourth, when Moto2 World Champion Toni Elias in an aggressive and almost an impossible move to take Julian Simon’s second place ran into the side of Andrea Iannone’s bike.

Iannone didn’t crash and finished second with Abraham slipping in front of the scattered pack to finish first on the chequered flag,but Elias’ wild move cost Iannone the lead and second place in the final standings, while the Spaniard ended up in the gravel trap and would rejoin and finish 30th.

Third went to Julian Simon followed by Thomas Luthi and Scott Redding who managed to hold off Alex de Angelis for fifth.

Continue reading: Moto2 Valencia: Karel Abraham wins in last lap upset

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Toni Elias grabbed a further hold on the Moto2 championship by winning his third straight race at Indianapolis. The Gresini Moriwaki rider despite suffering from a bad case of the flu was able to prevail again in a red flagged and shortened race.

The first start had to red flagged due to two separate multi pile-ups at Turn 2, with Lukas Pesek (who started the cannonball incident) Gabor Talmacsi, Simone Corsi and Michael Ranseder all going down and in the second, which included Yonny Hernandez, RogerLee Hayden, Shoya Tomizawa and Vladimir Ivanov. The race was shortened to 17 laps with Ranseder and Tomizawa unable to return to action in the restart, while Simone Corsi was pushed back to the last place on the grid for being late.

In the restart Elias got the hole shot while pole man Julian Simon dropped to fourth behind Anthony West and Scott Redding. Simon got past Redding on the third lap and then set his sights on West and got past him and then overtook Elias on lap four, while the back of the field was another crash fest. Ivanov took out Debon, Faubel binned his Suter while he was running in fifth with a trail of gas spilling out and catching fire on the asphalt. Bradl went down after tangling with Cluzel and the three front runners started distancing the rest of the group.

Continue reading: Video - Moto2 Indianapolis: Toni Elias wins in crash strewn race

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In an exciting Moto2 race Jules Cluzel (Forward Racing) took his first ever GP victory after a last-lap battle with Thomas Luthi and Julian Simon where the French rider crossed under the chequered flag before Luthi by just 0.057s.

Pole man Claudio Corti took the head of the race for the first three laps and then he and Julian Simon began a two way battle for the lead until Jules Cluzel decided to become a part of the two front runners while Simone Corsi and Stefan Bradl collided and ended up in the kitty litter and were unable to re-join the race.

Hard charging Swiss rider Thomas Luthi who took off from 9th on the grid started on the 10th lap putting in a series of fast laps (2′09″886 on lap 11) and moving through the field to put himself in fourth and begin his battle for the lead and taking it with just three laps to go.

Claudio Corti crashed out at the Vale on the penultimate lap leaving Luthi more room, but the Interwetten Moriwaki rider would make a costly mistake, outbraking himself and running wide letting Jules Cluzel through and the Frenchman would keep all the doors closed till the finish line.

Continue reading: Moto2 Silverstone: Jules Cluzel Wins in Three Way Battle

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Moto2 at Le Mans began with 41 riders on the starting grid, but only 29 racers survived to make it to the chequered flag in a dramatic and crash filled first half of the race where Toni Elias took his second win of the season.

Alex Debon took the holeshot, but a hot riding Toni Elias came out of nowwhere and riding on the outside at the Dunlop turn took the lead, but in the back of the field with six or seven riders hitting turn one at the same time saw the first incident with Dominique Aegerter and Karel Abraham got the worst of it, going down on the track and luckily weren’t hit by the other oncoming riders.

At the end of the first lap Debon grabbed the lead only to be punished with a jump start penalty and on the fourth lap headed to the pit lane for his ride through. With Debon gone, the fight for first place was between Elias and Jules Cluzel and poleman Kenny Noyes, only to have Cluzel lowside as soon as he got the lead on lap 5. Kenny Noyes and Yuki Takahashi also crashed out of third and fourth on lap five.

Continue reading: Moto2 Le Mans: Crash Strewn Race and Toni Elias Wins

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Aspar’s Moto2 team has decided to change their chassis supplier after just two races.

Julian Simon and Mike Di Meglio are unhappy with the performance of their Italian RSV chassis and the team according to Spanish website Motociclismo.es will be switching to the Swiss Suter to supply their new chassis.

Both riders tested various chassis options including BQR, Moriwaki, RSV, Kalex after Aprilia pulled out of the championship and decided that RSV was the better option, however after two rounds with Julian Simon standing only 13th in the standings with just 8 points and Mike Di Meglio with no points, the Spanish team run by Aspar Martinez has decided to abandon the Italian manufacturer.

The Aspar team has will be testing the MMX Suter chassis at the Albacete circuit this week to familiarize itself with the new package before heading for the LeMans round that is scheduled for May 23rd.

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Arriving in Qatar on crutches after undergoing surgery on his ankle and hand just three weeks ago, powerhouse Toni Elias took the pole position for the first ever Moto2 race at the Losail International Circuit last night.

The Spaniard put in a best lap of 2’01.904 on his Gresini Moriwaki to take the top spot and finishing 0.128s ahead of second place Aspars Julian Simon. Third spot went to Sfefan Bradl on his Suter bike who was only 0.006s behind Simon.

Fourth place on the front row went to Alex De Angelis with his Scot Racing Force GP210 bike. Yuki Takahashi on Herve Poncharal’s Tech3 bike was fifth while Jules Cluzel of Forward Racing took the sixth spot on the grid . Raffaele De Rosa, Takahashi’s team-mate was seventh and Alex Debón set the eighth-fastest time

Shoya Tomizawa (Technomag-CIP) took the ninth spot and Alex Badolini on the I.C.P bike closed the top ten, 0.962s from pole setter Toni Elias.

Continue reading: Moto2 Qatar: Toni Elias Takes first ever Moto2 Pole

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With the upcoming Moto2 championship season that will kick off on April 11th in Qatar, the Moto2 teams are starting to reveal their official liveries for the upcoming inaugural season.

Jorge ‘Aspar’ Martinez with Moto2 riders Julian Simon and Mike di Meglio unveiled this colour scheme on their RSV Moto2 bike.

Martinez is the only team manager to run squads in all three GP series. Besides Moto2, he also runs Banjaca Aprilia in 125cc with Nico Terol and Bradley Smith and the Paginas Amarillas Ducati MotoGP team with rookie rider Hector Barbera.

Moto2 teams will be at Jerez again this weekend for another two days of official tests.

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Julian Simon, the reigning 125cc World Champion and one of the hotly tipped riders to rule in Moto2, got the chance to test an evo version of Ducati Desmosedici GP10 the other day at Jerez.

With Vitto Guareschi in Qatar with the Ducati team for the final pre-season test and new test rider Franco Battaini out due to a wrist injury, the Ducati management decided to contact Julian Simon’s team manager Aspar Martinez to ask if the Spanish rider could carry out two days of testing. The test was overseen by Filippo Preziosi who wanted to prove once again that the Ducati isn’t a one rider bike.

Simon did 115 laps and a race simulation with a best lap of 1′41.4, only 1.6s from Valentino Rossi’s lap record on this track.

The Aspar Mapfre rider will be back on track with his RSV always at Jerez for the official Moto2 test scheduled for March 27-29th.

Source | as.com

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The second day of the Moto2 IRTA tests at Valencia, saw Julian Simon with the RSV on top of the chart with a best lap of 1’37”156, followed by Kenny Noyes of the Antonio Banderas team who was second and Toni Elias in third, Claudio Corti of Forward Racing in fourth and Yuki Takahashi in fifth with Herve Poncharal’s Tech 3 bike.

These five riders were separated by only 0.479s from Simon’s best time and overall the first nine riders are separated by less than one second and this includes Yonny Hernandez and Alex DeAngelis and Thomas Luthi who both made a big jump forward from Day 1, as did Fonsi Nieto who moved into the top 10.

Today will be the last day of testing at Valencia and the Moto2 riders will be back on track for more testing at Jerez on March 8th.

Continue reading: Moto 2: Julian Simon on Top on Day 2 at Valencia

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Three days of official Moto2 testing got underway today at Valencia, with all the teams finally receiving the long awaited official spec engines signed, sealed and powered by Honda and prepared by Geo Technology that will have to last for the first three races.

Today’s testing saw reigning 125cc champion Julian Simon come out on top of the charts with his RSV and a best lap of 1.37”548 during the afternoon session pipping out former MotoGP rider Toni Elias of Gresini Racing by just 0.004.

Taking third was Claudio Corti on a Suter chassis bike (Forward Racing) who was 0.489s behind Simon and and another former MotoGP rider, Yuki Takahasi on the Tech3 bike in fourth.

Fifth was Yonny Hernandez who has taken Bernat Martinez place in the Blusens STX team. Anthony West was sixth with Ralf Waldmann’s MZ Racing Team is still on the reserve list.

The entry list for Moto2 has increased from 39 to 40 riders with the official admission of Marc VDS Racing Team’s second rider Vincent Lonbois. Also confirmed in Moto 2 is Simone Corsi with Japan Italy Racing that will ride a TSR alongside team mate Mattia Pasini, who will race with #3 as #24 is being used by Toni Elias.

All the official test times from Day 1 can be found here.

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The final day of testing at the Catalunya race track saw a wet track and cold temperatures that hampered the morning session with only a few Moto2 riders willing to risk riding in tricky conditions.

With weather conditions improving in the afternoon, Raffaele De Rosa (Tech3) and Julian Simon (Mapfre Aspar) were the top riders, posting the exact same times 1’49.3, while Shoya Tomizawa (Technomag-CIP) did a 1’49.4 , the same lap time that saw him on top of the charts yesterday.

Anthony West who is on the Moto2 reserve list with the MZ Racing Team, also recorded the same time as Tomizawa.

All the teams are scheduled back for another official test in Valencia March 1- 3, where they should finally receive Honda’s 4-cylinder 600cc engine developed for the Moto2 class.

Continue reading: Moto2: DeRosa and Simon on Top on Final Day of Testing

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After the first day of Moto2 testing at Montmelò that was virtually a washout due to bad weather, today it was sunny and cold, and full of spills.

The morning session saw several riders fall including Roberto Rolfo who dislocated his left shoulder and was shipped off to the Dexeus Clinic where it was put back into place and received a prognosis of 4 weeks, which will cut his testing short and he could also miss the upcoming tests in Valencia.

Alex Debon also crashed and may have fractured his left collarbone and Julian Simon (Mapfre Aspar), Thomas Luthi (Interwetten Moriwaki Racing), Fonsi Nieto (G22 HolidayGym), Raffaele De Rosa (Tech3) also went through crashes, but fortunately with no serious consequences.

It was Shoya Tomizawa (Technomag-CIP ) who set the fastest lap of the day, posting a best time of 1’49.4 followed by Jules Cluzel (Forward Racing) and Yonny Hérnandez (Blusens-STX), who both posted a 1’49.6.

Continue reading: Moto2: Shoya Tomizawa on Top at Montmelò

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