MarcVDS Racing’s Tito Rabat took a tight Moto2 win from his team-mate, Mika Kallio at Silverstone this afternoon. The lead changed between the pair throughout the final half of the race, with the victory going to the wire as Rabat crossed the line in first – and extending his lead in the championship.
Maverick Vinales managed to hold on to third to take the third step of the podium. Speed Up’s Sam Lowes had a steady race, and managed to bag some valuable points for his team, with the Derby-based rider crossing the line in seventh.
At first it was Zarco who got the hole shot from Kallio and Corsi, with Lowes going up one place in sixth. Before he even completed the first rotation, wildcard rider and Moto2 debutant Dakota Mamola entered the pits with a technical problem.
By lap two Kallio got the better of Zarco to take the lead coming out of the home straight. But the Finnish rider’s reign at the top was only going to last two laps, as Zarco retook the lead with 14 laps remaining, but Kallio got back at the Frenchman seconds later.
Elsewhere Lowes fell back to ninth as he was overtaken by Folger and Luthi. With ten laps to go Vinales was hot on the tail of Zarco and both bikes touched and Vinales edged ahead to take a provisional second.
But Vinales went wide at Vale and ended up loosing two places, and was back to fourth. The battle for second started to steam up on the historic English track, with a three way battle emerging between Zarco, Vinales and Rabat – who fought his way up to second after getting inside the slip stream of the other two riders going into the home straight.
Soon Rabat was catching up with his Marc VDS team-mate, with Kallio having a two second advantage. But further down the field Folger and Corsi collided with each other, after the German lost the front and slid into Corsi at The Loop, moving Lowes up to seventh.
On the penultimate lap Rabat kept chipping away at his teammate, and managed to get in to touching distance of Kallio, and Rabat made a move going underneath his colleague to take first place, and a duel appeared out on track.
Kallio managed to get his own back at Luffield, with Vinales slowly edging ever closer to the Marc VDS pair. But Rabat fought back at Woodcote, and protected his line to stop Kallio getting the win, and Rabat crossed the line, to extend his lead in the championship by 17 points over Kallio. Lowes finished a solid seventh, with fellow Brit, AGT’s Gino Rea crossing the line in 20th place.
