Franco Morbidelli extended his championship lead to 13 points after snatching victory away from Tom Luthi in a thrilling Moto2 Dutch TT.
Morbidelli, who was announced as a Marc VDS MotoGP rider for next season this morning, led the field in the opening stages after cruising ahead of Tom Luthi, who missed a gear exiting Turn 5 on first lap.
The Italian was unable to check out, however, with KTM’s Miguel Oliveira reeling him in and passing him into the final corner on the fourth lap after surviving contact with Morbidelli a lap prior at Turn 4.
Oliveira led for the next three lpas, Mugello race winner Mattia Pasini taking over on the seventh tour having carved his way through from seventh on the grid.
The Italian soon came under pressure from 2016 Dutch TT winner Takaaki Nakagami, the Japanese rider taking the lead at the end of the ninth lap and holding onto it through to lap 18.
By now spots of rain had began to fall, but never amounted to anything. Nonetheless, with two-thirds distance fast approaching, the leading group of Nakagami, Morbidelli, Pasini, Oliveira, Luthi and Alex Marquez began dicing harder in case of a red flag situation.
Marquez was staring at a podium, but got carved up on the final few laps and lost touch with the leading group in sixth spot.
Luthi took the lead on lap 21, Nakagami dropping out of contention for the victory when he ran off at Turn 1. The Swiss rider tried to to check out, but Morbidelli reeled him in and pounced at Turn 9.
Running a massively defensive line into the final chicane, Morbidelli left Luthi with no way through and stormed across the line for his fifth win of the 2017 season.
Pasini took the chequered flag in third, but was demoted one position when he ran through the chicane while battling with Nakagami. Oliveira completed the top five, 0.236 seconds away from Pasini.
Xavier Simeon clung onto the lead pack in the early stages, but a scrap with Hafizh Syahrin saw him lose touch. The Belgian held the Malaysian at bay by just 0.060s to clinch seventh, with Fabio Quartararo and Francesco Bagnaia rounding out the top 10.
Marcel Schrotter ran the entire race without a front mudguard after it detached at the start. The German still managed to get his Dynavolt Intact GP machine home in 11th, while team-mate Sandro Cortese crashed out.
Dominique Aegerter took the chequered flag in a comfortable 12th from Brad Binder, with fellow Moto2 rookie Jorge Navarro following Yonny Hernandez across the line to 15th.
