If Tom Lüthi showed himself to be imperial during the qualification, we remember that it was in fact shortened by the arrival of the rain. We can therefore legitimately think that the gap of almost half a second that he was able to gain over his closest competitors, starting with Johan Zarco and Dominique Aegerter, will probably not be found entirely in the race...
Contrary to the weather forecasts, a semi-clear sky giving way to the sun, a strong wind and a dry track at 23° greeted the drivers during the grid.
When the red lights go out, Luthi maintains the advantage of his pole position, before Aegerter and Zarco, before Lowes does not pass the French driver a few turns further on. This one seems to make a cautious start to the race since it also lets Nakagami (the fastest man in the warm up) and Morbidely in the process.
Axel Pons fall without seriousness at the first corner while in the lead Luthi and Aegerter begin a fratricidal war in which Morbidelli joins.
Caution or problem, Zarco quickly finds himself 7th, when Morbidelli took the lead, 20 laps before the finish.
Morbidelli, Nakagami, Luthi, Aegerter and Baldassarri managed to widen a small gap of half a second on Lowes and Zarco.
Kidneys, leader of the championship, is then 9th, one second behind the Frenchman. Fans of the Ajo pilot are worried…
More on the 7th lap, Zarco recovers 3 places at once, passing Lowes, Aegerter and Baldassarri while Nakagami takes the lead. The Japanese driver then had to battle with Morbidelli which allowed Zarco to close his gap and move up to 3rd.
Shortly before halfway, the pace picks up and Nakagami begins to escape, in front of Luthi who blocks Zarco a little. Suddenly, Morbidelli returns in the wake of #5, to which the Frenchman responds by passing Luthi. The VDS driver does the same.
There are 11 laps remaining and Nakagami now has a 2,3 second lead, and this gap increases further with the overtaking between Zarco and Morbidelli.
If the positions stabilized in this way, Zarco would lead the championship by one point ahead of Rins (7th), and by 8 over Lowes (6th).
In the last laps, Zarco accelerates and manages to get rid of Morbidelli; he slowly goes back up to Nakagami…
Luthi fall at turn #8 when the flag announcing the arrival of rain is waved, 5 laps before the finish. It's just a few drops and the race continues. The gap between Nakagami and Zarco drops to 1,6 seconds... at which point the red flag is waved, because of the rain.
Xavier Simeon concluded in 11th position, Robin Mulhauser at the 22th.
First Grand Prix victory for the Japanese driver (the last Japanese victory dates back to 2010 with Takahashi in Catalunya on the Mistral Tech3), and takeover of the championship by Johann Zarco, tied on points with Kidneys, but with one more victory, and 5 points ahead of Lowes!
| Pos | Pile | Team | Motorcycle | difference | ||||
| 1 | Takaaki NAKAGAMI | IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia | Kalex | 34'33.948 | ||||
| 2 | johann zarco | Ajo Motorsport | Kalex | +2.435 | ||||
| 3 | Frank MORBIDELLI | Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS | Kalex | +5.670 | ||||
| 4 | Sam LOWES | Federal Oil Gresini Moto2 | Kalex | +7.069 | ||||
| 5 | Lorenzo BALDASSARRI | Forward Team | Kalex | +7.883 | ||||
| 6 | Alex Rins | Pages Yellow HP 40 | Kalex | +9.215 | ||||
| 7 | Simone COURSES | Speed Up Racing | Speed Up | +9.482 | ||||
| 8 | Alex MARQUEZ | Estrella Galicia 0,0 Marc VDS | Kalex | +15.004 | ||||
| 9 | Dominique AEGERTER | CarXpert Interwetten | Kalex | +15.227 | ||||
| 10 | Jonas Folger | Dynavolt Intact GP | Kalex | +15.404 | ||||
| 11 | Xavier SIMEON | QMMF Racing Team | Speed Up | +16.374 | ||||
| 12 | Sandro CORTESE | Dynavolt Intact GP | Kalex | +16.567 | ||||
| 13 | Marcel SCHROTTER | AGR Team | Kalex | +24.770 | ||||
| 14 | Danny Kent | Leopard Racing | Kalex | +25.017 | ||||
| 15 | Miguel OLIVEIRA | Leopard Racing | Kalex | +25.542 | ||||
| 16 | Julian SIMON | QMMF Racing Team | Speed Up | +25.729 | ||||
| 17 | Xavi VIRGIN | Tech 3 Racing | Tech 3 | +34.115 | ||||
| 18 | Jesko RAFFIN | Sports-Millions-EMWE-SAG | Kalex | +34.180 | ||||
| 19 | Matthias PASINI | Italtrans Racing Team | Kalex | +34.764 | ||||
| 20 | Remy GARDNER | Moto2 Scuderia Racing pocket | Kalex | +41.438 | ||||
| 21 | Isaac VIÑALES | Tech 3 Racing | Tech 3 | +42.058 | ||||
| 22 | Robin MULHAUSER | CarXpert Interwetten | Kalex | +48.683 | ||||
| 23 | Edgar PONS | Pages Yellow HP 40 | Kalex | +56.096 | ||||
| Thomas LUTHI | Garage Plus Interwetten | Kalex | 3 Tours | |||||
| Luca MARINI | Forward Team | Kalex | 4 Tours | |||||
| Hafiz Syahrin | Petronas Raceline Malaysia | Kalex | 7 Tours | |||||
| Axel PONS | AGR Team | Kalex | 17 Tours | |||||
