False starts across the grid initiated by 2015 Champion Johann Zarco who set off a chain-reaction that included Sam Lowes, Alex Rins and Marcel Schrotter who also received a ride-through penalty, as well as Nakagami and Mulhauser which was announced later on. The four completed their penalties within one lap.
The bike can move a fraction on the grid according to the new rules this year; as long as there is no advantage gained (they stop) they will not be penalized. The race should have probably been red-flagged and restarted as a result of it being such a disaster; however this would have possibly created issues with fuel.
New to the Dynavolt Intact GP Team, German Jonas Folger made the perfect start and got away clean and efficiently taking a lead straight away. He was followed by Federal Oil Racing Team rider Sam Lowes but Takaaki Nakagami soon got under him on his IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia bike; Lowes soon claimed it back and Luthi joined him to claim third.
By the end of the first lap of twenty, Folger had a lead of just less than one second. Unfortunately, he fell after two laps despite increasing his lead to 1.5 seconds after losing the front. He was unable to return to the track.
Garage Plus Interwetten Team rider Thomas Luthi slip-streamed Lowes and took second place at the beginning of the first corner and new to the Forward Team Luca Marini soon followed. Luthi found himself out at the front with 18 laps to go, after 2 laps Morbidelli soon overtook him as he got past on the inside almost making contact with Luthi. Luthi soon got back in front and the battle continued between the two with Morbidelli lapping slightly faster.
Nakagami was in third and was caught by Speed Up Racing Team rider Simone Corsi who was lapping fastest and managed to get past Sandro Cortese on the other Dynavolt Intact GP Kalex. Cortese managed to get past him at the beginning of the seventh lap and he and Corsi continued to battle as they left Nakagami behind; he had to complete his ride-through penalty which took him out of contention. Cortese set the fastest lap of the race overall after completing his ride through penalty.
British rider Danny Kent found himself in sixth after the riders above him had to complete their ride-through penalties on the newly expanded Leopard Racing Team ahead of Axel Pons who was strong throughout testing. He was behind Louis Salam and was soon overtaken by Syahrin. It was his first race back in Moto2 since 2013 and he finished sixth overall.
EG 0,0 Marc VDS rider Alex Marquez fell with fourteen laps to go at Turn 14; the already injured Spaniard looked unhurt but was unable to re-join. Xavier Simeon fell from his QMMF Racing Team Speed Up bike with five laps to go and was able to get back on his bike but returned to the pits. AGR Team rider Axel Pons lost the rear end of his bike at turn fourteen with three laps to go and was also able to re-join; he did not complete the race.
It was disappointing for Sam Lowes was the fastest of those penalized and was definitely on the pace as he made his way through the pack. He set a new lap record during lap ten when he was in eighteenth place. He was definitely pushing it as he almost lost it at turn fifteen with seven laps to go, he was able to recover from almost experiencing a ‘high-side’ and continued to push in seventeenth. He soon made his way up to eleventh with two laps to go. He incredibly finished in ninth overall.
Back to the front runners, Morbidelli led Luthi after overtaking him at the end of the start-finish straight entering turn one; he managed to break away slightly. It did look like Morbidelli was one of those who had a jump start at the beginning of the race but his penalty did not seem to be coming from race control; when there were just six laps to go the message came to say that Morbidelli and Cortese were under investigation. Applying the penalty to Morbidelli and Cortese after the race meant adding twenty seconds to their overall time.
Luthi and Morbidelli managed to create a gap of almost seven seconds by the end of the penultimate lap. However due to the ongoing investigation, no-one was sure of what the final standings were going to be. As they completed the final lap Luthi regained the lead, unbeknown to them race control then confirmed that Morbidelli and Cortese would have the twenty-second penalty applied.
It finished as Luthi the winner ahead of Luis Salom (SAG Team), Hafizh Syharin (Petronas Raceline Malaysia Team) and Dominque Aegerter (Car Xpert Interwetten) who finished ahead of British rider Kent. Morbidelli finished second on track but seventh overall and Cortese finished third on track but fifteenth overall.
This is a controversial end to the start of the first race of the season as many riders were penalized and lost a lot more time than others meaning the results at the end of the race were unfair.
