Zarco Steals Last Lap Win from Luthi

Oct 25, 2015
3 min read

2015 Moto2 World Champion Johann Zarco stole victory from Thomas Luthi on the last lap at the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Thomas Luthi had led every lap of the 19-lap Moto2 race at Sepang, but Zarco had followed him for every lap too with the gap never extending more than one second and on the last lap Zarco made a brilliant move at turn two. Luthi fought back and forced Zarco to have to brake later to seal the move at turn four and the champion obliged and took the lead into the right-handed turn four. Luthi couldn't respond and Zarco was able to clinch his eighth win of the season and equal the record of 14 Moto2 podiums in a single season.

Luthi started the race from pole position for the first time since Qatar in 2012, and initially led the field away before Zarco made a move half way round the first lap and took over at the front. Luthi responded and retook the lead into the final corner to be first at the end of the opening lap. Rins had started in third but made a poor start and dropped to seventh. The winner and Moto2 rookie of the year climbed his way back up to fifth almost immediately before making his way past Nakagami for fourth and then Folger for third.

However, the duo outfront were pulling away with consistently fast lap times meaning Rins couldn't close on Luthi and Zarco leaving a two-way fight for the win. Unfortunately, Rins lost the front end of his bike at the left-hander turn nine and crashed out of third place gifting it to Jonas Folger and allowed Luthi and Zarco to be comfortably at the front of the field. Baldassarri and Nakagami had a race long battle for fifth which became fourth when Rins crashed. Nakagami eventually secured the position five laps from the end.

Back at the front, Luthi managed to extend his lead up to one second but that was the maximum advantage he could gain over the looming Zarco. With just two laps to go, Zarco closed in on Luthi and both were pushing to the limit to win the race and the gap came down to just four tenths of a second. Zarco halved the gap going on to the final lap and made a late move down the inside of Luthi into turn two. He ran slightly wide which allowed Luthi to edge back in front to turn three and down the hill to turn four. However, Zarco braked later into the right-hander of turn four and took the lead once more from Luthi. The Swiss rider was unable to launch an attack in the second half of the lap and Zarco went on to claim his eighth win of a dominant 2015 season by the French rider.

Elsewhere, Lorenzo Baldassarri followed up from his maiden podium last weekend to finish a creditable fifth behind Takaaki Nakagami. Luis Salom finished sixth in his best result since the Catalan GP in June just ahead of Sandro Cortese. Local hero Hafizh Syahrin impressed his fans with a superb eighth place at his home race and celebrated with the crowd after the race. Simone Corsi and Xavier Simeon completed the top 10.

With the champion decided, the Moto2 paddock heads to the season finale at Valencia with eyes on records and the runner-up. Johann Zarco can set a new record for the most Moto2 podiums in one season and equal Marc Marquez' record of nine Moto2 wins in a single season. Meanwhile, outgoing champion Tito Rabat should return after missing the last three race through injury and will be hoping to steal runner-up spot from fellow Spaniard Alex Rins. Rabat is currently just eight points behind Rins.

Moto2 Malaysian Grand Prix Race Results Top10:

WINNER - JOHANN ZARCO, 40m37.772s

Second - Thomas LUTHI, +0.598s

Third - Jonas FOLGER, +9.846s

4th - Takaaki NAKAGAMI, +14.139s

5th - Lorenzo BALDASSARRI, +16.440s

6th - Luis SALOM, +22.294s

7th - Sandro CORTESE, +22.708s

8th - Hafizh SYAHRIN, +26.685s

9th - Simone CORSI, +28.556s

10th - Xavier SIMEON, +30.081s.

Full Moto2 Race Results available here.