Britain’s Sam Lowes took fifth place in today’s Sachsenring Moto2 race after an error by Franco Morbidelli at the last corner on the last lap saw him and reigning champion Tito Rabat end in the gravel trap.
Lowes had scrapped his way to seventh place after a tough opening couple of laps and was sitting in that position until Morbidelli’s error promoted him to to fifth place.
He closes in on the championship second place as Rabat could only hobble out of the gravel just a week after breaking his collarbone at Almeria while Lowes picked up 11 points.
The crash also meant Johann Zarco, who took second behind Xavier Simeon by only 0.083s, increases his grip on the series top spot to 65 points as Alex Rins also benefitted from the last-lap incident to bag the last podium spot.
“At the start I got a bit caught up and that’s the problem with qualifying down in ninth but in the second half of the race I had really good pace,” said Lowes, speaking after the race.
“I feel alright. To come out of here with 11 points is not really what you want but last year we finished 20th and if fifth is my worst result of the year, then we would have to be pleased with that.”
