Le Mans Moto2: Marquez ends winless streak

Baldassarri had a big crash just one lap into the race and even collected Mattia Pasini in the process, before being taken away on a stretcher.

He was subsequently diagnosed with a dislocated right collarbone and a concussion, and headed the local hospital.

It was the second major incident in two laps, with Andrea Locatelli having had a massive highside at Turn 3 after the start, the Italian fortunate to avoid being hit by another bike.

Tom Luthi and Marquez took first and second from pole-sitter Jorge Navarro at the start, with the Swiss rider leading the first few laps.

But Marquez passed Luthi at the Dunlop Curve on lap 4 and the latter lost more positions in quick succession.

For a while it was a Marc VDS 1-2 with Xavi Vierge following Marquez, but the charging Simone Corsi soon passed the latter.

The Tasca Racing rider carved his way through the field from 18th on the grid, running second after just nine laps.

But as he set out after Marquez, Corsi ended up crashing out just three laps later at Turn 13.

Marquez's lead then grew to over a second, with Navarro inheriting second. The Speed Up rider's efforts to close in on Marquez ended when Augusto Fernandez started to attack him, the duo switching positions a couple of times, allowing Marquez to increase his gap to two seconds.

Navarro looked to have started a late-race charge, but that stopped when he ran wide at Garage Vert, allowing Fernandez through.

Marquez then managed his gap to cross the line first by 1.1s, his first win since Motegi in 2017.

Navarro did not let Fernandez pull away and even reclaimed second, only to make another mistake, before eventually securing the position with a last-lap move.

Both Navarro and Fernandez repeated their results from the previous race at Jerez, with Brad Binder taking his best result of the season with the struggling Ajo KTM team.

He stole fourth from Vierge in the dying stages, the latter followed by Luthi, who had to settle for sixth.

Italtrans rookie Enea Bastianini finished seventh, followed by Marcel Schrotter (Intact), Iker Lecuona (CGBM) and Nicolo Bulega (Sky VR46).

Nine riders crashed out of the race including Sam Lowes, Somkiat Chantra, Remy Gardner, Dimas Ekky Pratama and Steven Odendaal.

Cla	Rider	Bike	Laps	Time	Gap
1	Alex Marquez	Kalex	25	40'36.428
2	Jorge Navarro	Speed Up	25	40'37.547	1.119
3	Augusto Fernandez	Kalex	25	40'38.228	1.800
4	Brad Binder	KTM	25	40'42.443	6.015
5	Xavi Vierge	Kalex	25	40'43.485	7.057
6	Thomas Luthi	Kalex	25	40'45.829	9.401
7	Enea Bastianini	Kalex	25	40'46.523	10.095
8	Marcel Schrotter	Kalex	25	40'46.903	10.475
9	Iker Lecuona	KTM	25	40'47.674	11.246
10	Nicolo Bulega	Kalex	25	40'53.540	17.112
11	Tetsuta Nagashima	Kalex	25	40'54.965	18.537
12	Fabio Di Giannantonio	Speed Up	25	40'56.245	19.817
13	Luca Marini	Kalex	25	41'04.243	27.815
14	Joe Roberts	KTM	25	41'04.316	27.888
15	Stefano Manzi	MV	25	41'25.567	49.139
16	Lukas Tulovic	KTM	25	41'27.228	50.800
17	Jake Dixon	KTM	25	41'28.116	51.688
18	Marco Bezzecchi	KTM	25	41'29.651	53.223
19	Philipp Ottl	KTM	25	41'37.287	1'00.859
20	Jorge Martin	KTM	25	41'40.145	1'03.717
	Dominique Aegerter	MV	24	39'25.436	1 Lap
	Dimas Ekky Pratama	Kalex	21	35'02.439	4 Laps
	Xavi Cardelus	KTM	20	34'08.702	5 Laps
	Remy Gardner	Kalex	13	21'13.824	12 Laps
	Steven Odendaal	NTS	12	19'51.813	13 Laps
	Bo Bendsneyder	NTS	12	20'08.414	13 Laps
	Simone Corsi	Kalex	9	14'41.637	16 Laps
	Sam Lowes	Kalex	8	13'15.531	17 Laps
	Somkiat Chantra	Kalex	8	13'23.003	17 Laps
	Lorenzo Baldassarri	Kalex	1	1'42.028	24 Laps
	Mattia Pasini	Kalex	1	1'42.391	24 Laps
	Andrea Locatelli	Kalex
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