Alex Marquez took his third win of the season in a wet shortened Japanese Moto2 race as team-mate Morbidelli extended his standings lead after a tough race for nearest rival Tom Luthi.
Like the Moto3 race that preceded it, Moto2 ran to a shortened race distance of 15 laps due to delays in the morning warm-up sessions.
Pole man Takaaki Nakagami stormed into the lead off the line, while Luthi made a crucial launch from 11th to seventh as championship leader Morbidelli made up just one place to 13th.
By the fourth lap, Morbidelli had only found himself in 11th as Luthi locked horns with Hafizh Syahrin and Dominique Aegerter over sixth spot.
However, Luthi‘s afternoon quickly went awry as issues with his visor saw his pace drop off – an off-track excursion at the start of the fourth lap and dropping him to 10th failed to help his cause.
With his pace rapidly deteriorating, Luthi was powerless to stop Morbidelli from craving through to take 10th on lap six. The Italian proceeded to advance forward up to eighth spot, while Luthi came under threat from behind.
Fortunately for the Swiss rider, the hard-charging Brad Binder – who was two seconds quicker than Luthi – crashed while hunting him down on lap eight, offering the struggling Interwetten rider some respite.
At the front, Marquez hounded home hero Nakagami, and eventually broke the Japanese rider’s resolve at Turn 11 in the closing stages. Now in front, the Spaniard immediately opened out an advantage of a second as Nakagami slipped out of the podium positions to sixth.
Tech3’s Xavi Vierge converted a maiden front row start in Moto2 to a first podium after a late charge to second ahead of Syahrin, while Francesco Bagnaia pipped compatriot Mattia Pasini to fourth on the final lap.
KTM’s Miguel Oliveira was an early podium contender, but quickly dropped down the order to eventually finish seventh ahead of Morbidelli, who now holds a 24-point advantage in the standings with Luthi a distant 11th.
Aegerter put Morbidelli under brief pressure on the final lap, but the Misano race winner could do nothing to keep the Italian behind him and crossed the line ninth. Lorenzo Baldassarri completed the top 10 having started from 30th.
Remy Gardner trailed Luthi home by 3.6 seconds in 12th from Marcel Schrotter and Japanese wildcard Ikuhiro Enokido, while Scotsman Tarran Mackenzie scored his first points in grand prix racing in 15th.
Xavier Simeon, Sandro Cortese and Luca Marini suffered falls in the tricky conditions, while Andrea Locatteli was forced out in the opening laps with a bike problem.
