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Moto3
With Danny Kent starting 18th, the task was slightly clearer for Miguel Oliveira. Starting from fourth, he had to win the race to stand a chance, coupled with Kent finishing 15th or lower. John McPhee took pole position on the back of signing a new contract for 2016.
Oliveira started as he should, taking the lead before turn one, McPhee dropping to fourth. Kent ended lap one in 15th, stuck in a battle between Francesco Bagnaia and Fabio Quartararo, gaining a place the next lap. Oliveira was being kept honest at the front, under pressure from Romano Fenati then Efren Vasquez, who took the lead on lap four. Jorge Navarro came to play on lap five, moving up to second after Oliveira retook the lead. Kent was still not making any inroads on those in front though, maintaining 14th.
Navarro and Oliveira then started exchanging the lead, with Fenati also looking interested. Unfortunately for the Portuguese, Kent gained another place by going 13th, then 12th as Quartararo retired and Karel Hanika crashed. Kent later took 11th, making Oliveira's impressive stint at the front pretty irrelevant at this point.
With two laps left, Kent was still being troubled by his team mate Hiroki Ono, despite appeals from the Leopard team for him to calm down. At the same point, Navarro and Vasquez went past Oliveira. Vasquez and Oliveira both took turns at leading through turn one on the last lap. The KTM rider made the lead stick again, as Ono started fighting with Kent for position. Niccolo Antonelli's first moment of interest happened at the last turn, taking out Vasquez and Fenati. Oliveira took the win, but Kent coming home ninth meant that Britain has its first world champion since Barry Sheen in 1977, and the first minor class British champion since Dave Simmonds in 1969.
Final Standings
Danny Kent - 260
Miguel Oliveira - 254
Moto2
Moto2 has very much been forgotten about since Johann Zarco took the title, but that's because the other two have been ridiculously dramatic. As such, the Moto2 race today felt very anti-climatic, but started with a huge crash at turn two, five or six riders going down. The race was red flagged before the end of the first lap.
At the restart, Tito Rabat made a good start to convert pole into the lead, with Tom Luthi behind him in second. Zarco sat in sixth early on before falling further down behind Luis Salom and Sam Lowes into eighth. Lowes had a good race, steadily working his way through the field, reaching fifth by half distance.
To be honest, the race was a bit disappointing. Rabat won, with Alex Rins behind him in second. Luthi ended up third. Lowes finished fifth, with Zarco in second. It's all about the main event though.
MotoGP
Naturally, I'm going to be focussing on the performances of Lorenzo and Rossi in this, but should anything else of note happen, it'll be thrown in too. Lorenzo smashed the lap record in claiming pole, while Rossi fell off in Q2 despite knowing he would start last anyway.
Starting positions/Championship as it stands
Points: Lorenzo 305, Rossi 312
Lorenzo: 1st - 330
Rossi: Last - 312
Lorenzo started well, taking the lead into turn one ahead of the Hondas. Rossi was up to 16th by turn three, but Jorge was away. Aleix Espargaro made a good start but nearly tangled with Marc Marquez and lost a few places. Rossi came out 14th at the end of lap one, then 12th half a lap later. Andrea Iannone crashed out of fourth on lap three.
Lap five
Lorenzo: 1st - 330
Rossi: 9th - 319
Rossi took eighth from Bradley Smith on lap six, starting to chase down Danilo Petrucci and going past him as the Pramac rider went wide, allowing Smith through too. The Hondas were speeding up and catching Lorenzo, but the Spaniard still led. Rossi spent a couple of laps chasing the Espargaro brothers, passing Pol on lap ten.
Lap ten
Lorenzo: 1st - 330
Rossi: 6th - 322
Rossi briefly took fifth from Aleix but ran wide, letting the Suzuki back in briefly until Rossi made the move stick and instantly caught Andrea Dovizioso in fourth, taking the place on the next lap. At the front, the gap between Lorenzo and Marquez was closing up, with Pedrosa also looking interested. There was 11 seconds between Pedrosa and Rossi though, so it looked a case of the Hondas doing Rossi a favour.
Lap fifteen
Lorenzo: 1st - 330
Rossi: 4th - 325
Pedrosa was struggling to keep up with Lorenzo and Marquez, dropping a couple of tenths on each lap. Marquez was pushing hard to keep up with the Yamaha, sliding into turns in his usual style.
Lap twenty
Lorenzo: 1st - 330
Rossi: 4th - 325
Rossi was completely unable to gain any time on Pedrosa, whose own lap times were up and down, the advantage now 13.5 seconds. Lorenzo was still keeping Marquez at arms length though, the two comfortably ahead of Pedrosa - at least for a couple of laps. The tyres seemed to be falling away a bit, and Pedrosa was putting in his fastest laps of the race and closing the gap very quickly.
Lap twenty five
Lorenzo: 1st - 330
Rossi: 4th - 325
Marquez was still hot on the back of Lorenzo, but Jorge looked the personification of consistency. Pedrosa was still catching, taking hundredths out on each sector. He was less than a second behind Marquez with three laps left, taking half a second out on the next lap. Pedrosa took second on the second-last lap, and the two Hondas started battling, just allowing a little bit of a gap for Lorenzo. Last lap, the gap closed back up, but not enough for any impression to be made, and Jorge Lorenzo is your 2015 world champion.