Off track Marc Márquez is a shy and well-mannered unassuming 19 year old, but put him on a racing bike and he becomes one of the most aggressive riders in Moto2.

During yesterday’s race in Qatar, on the penultimate lap Marquez cut across the front of Thomas Luthi who was leading forcing him to run wide and off track, the Interwetten rider was able to rejoin but finished in 5th which didn’t go down at all well with him and on the cool down lap he caught up with the celebrating Marquez and angrily slapped the Spaniard’s arm gesturing that Marquez needs to use his head.

Apparently the question didn’t end there as Luthi’s mechanics decided to head over to the Team CatalunyaCaixa Repsol garage to demonstrate their anger, but Emilio Alzamora managed to calm things down before things got out of hand and had his star rider apologize, who added that he too had been made object of aggressive passes during the race, more or less a tit for a tat.

What do you guys think, was it an overly aggressive pass similar to Johann Zarco’s move on Nico Terol last season at Catalunya or is this just what racing is supposed to be about in the final laps of a very hard fought race? Video of the final laps after the jump.

Continue reading: Tempers fly at Interwetten after Marquez overtake

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Marc Marquez spent the whole nightmarish pre-season recovering from his eye injury, taking part only in the final test at Jerez, but the CatalunyaCaixa Repsol rider and Andrea ‘Crazy Joe’ Iannone offered some of the wildest racing in this first Moto2 race of the season in Qatar.

It was a five rider battle royal under the floodlights of the Losail circuit with the lead exchanging hands dozens of times in the 20 lap race, with Marquez getting the best drive out of the final corner of the final lap to take the victory over Iannone.

Pole sitter Thomas Luthi got the holeshot with a compact group following him close by, but at the end of the first lap on the straight Luthi ran wide on his braking point letting by Pol Espargaro, Marquez and Iannone. The three would swap the lead several times accompanied by some rough fairing bashing, until both Marquez and Iannone made mistakes on corner 1 running wide and setting them back to fourth and fifth and letting Espargaro, Rabat and Luthi through who again was in contact with the front runners and passed both the Pons riders on lap 14.

Both Marquez and Iannone, while swapping places between themselves disposed of Espargaro and Rabat and started chasing Luthi with Marquez close on his tail, pouncing at the beginning of last lap sending the Swiss rider wide and making him lose four precious spots. Iannone managed to grab the lead on turn 14 only to have Marquez get a better drive out of the last corner and slipstreaming won the race by just 0.061 seconds.

Pol Espargaro beat his team mate Esteve Rabat for the third spot on the podium while a shook-up Luthi managed to salvage fifth.

Scott Redding swept through the field to grab 6th and slipstreamed Mike de Meglio for the spot, while Simone Corsi finished 8th after riding as high in third and getting marginally involved with the front runners. Bradley Smith took 9th while Mika Kallio closed out the top ten.

Continue reading: Marc Marquez wins Moto2 thriller in Qatar

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After having lead all three free practice session in Qatar, Thomas Luthi continued to show his perfect form on the Suter MMXII by taking the first pole position of the 2012 Moto2 championship.

The former 125cc World Champion (2005) posted a best lap 2:00.187 early in the session, but was unable to better his lap in the last minutes due to traffic and a group of at least ten riders waiting to catch a tow, but it was enough to keep hard charging Marc Marquez at bay in second and 0.072 adrift.

Andrea Iannone grabbed the third spot on tomorrow’s starting grid and he was barely a one tenth of a second slower than pole man Luthi.

Pons 40 HP Tuenti’s Pol Espargaro was fourth but more than four tenths slower, while Mike di Meglio grabbed fifth and was just 0.028 from the Spaniard.

The surprise of the evening was Max Neukirchner who took his Kalex into 6th after three very anonymous practice sessions. Esteve Rabat also posted his best time early in qualifying that allowed to take 7th, while Claudio Corti following a crash and Italtrans Racing team mate Takaaki Nakagami were 8th and 9th respectively, with Simone Corsi closing out the top ten.

Continue reading: Moto2 Qatar: Thomas Luthi takes first pole position of the season

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The first free practice of the 2012 Moto2 season at the Losail circuit in Qatar went to Swiss rider Thomas Luthi.

The Interwetten Suter rider was the fastest rider on track after posting a best time 2′01.284 on his last flying lap to dislodge Esteve Rabat from the top of timesheets by 0.402 with his lap time coming to within three tenths of second of Alex de Angelis 2011 race lap record now that the track has more rubber laid down.

Rabat’s Pons Kalex team-mate Pol Espargaro finished the session in third with title favourite Marc Marquez taking fourth spot on his final lap. Simone Corsi seems to have resolved the FTR chassis problems he had during the Jerez test by taking fifth while Speed Master’s Andrea Iannone came in 6th and the last riders to be within a second from Luthi.

Marc VDS Racing Team’s Mika Kallio and Scott Redding were seventh and eighth respectively while Mike di Meglio and Takaaki Nakagami (Italtrans Racing Team) completed the top ten, while the last rider on the grid was Elena Rossell who was a massive 8 seconds slower than Luthi and 2 seconds slower than new team mate Anthony West who had no Moto2 pre-season testing on QMMF’s Moriwaki.

Continue reading: Moto2 Qatar: Thomas Luthi takes first free practice

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If you were one of those who shed a tear when the 250cc series was put out to pasture, with tonight’s first Moto2 race in Qatar everyone forgot all about the 250’s, that saw wild racing, crazy passes, fairings being bashed and crashes making Moto2 a spectacular show for any racing fan.

Shoya Tomizawa on the Technomag CIP Moto (Suter chassis) took his first ever GP win in the inaugural Moto2 race in Qatar.

Coming in second was Alex Debon and the third spot was taken by Jules Cluzel who battled it out until the final lap. Hotly tipped to win was injured Toni Elias who took fourth after being poleman finishing in front of a hard charging Roberto Rolfo.

Mattia Pasini and Thomas Lüthi were sixth and seventh respectively. Simone Corsi, Gabor Talmacsi and Sergio Gadea completed the top ten.

Riders who failed to finish the race were Alex DeAngelis who lost control of his bike who ended up taking out Stefan Bradl on the first lap. Julian Simon had to retire with clutch problems on the opening lap. Axel Pons, Yonny Hernández, Vladimir Leonov and Anthony West all DNF’d.

Continue reading: Moto2 Qatar: Shoya Tomizawa wins first Moto2 Race

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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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