De Angelis breaks through for maiden Moto2 victory

Alex de Angelis converted his pole position into a victory in a spectacular Moto2 race at the 2010 IVECO Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix on Sunday.

De Angelis, riding for Motobi, slipped to fourth on the opening lap before surviving a spirited battle with Briton Scott Redding (Suter) and Italian Andrea Iannone (Speed Up) to win by 2.172secs for his maiden victory in the new-for-2010 class.

It was the first win for the rider from San Marino since the 250cc Grand Prix at Valencia in 2006, a span of 64 races.

“I am very, very happy with my second victory after a difficult time,” de Angelis said.

“I want to dedicate this win to Shoya Tomizawa (the Japanese rider who lost his life at the San Marino Grand Prix in September). The first lap I was in difficulty because my rear tyre was too hard.

“But then I saw that the others were having even more difficulty so I tried to push. I put in six consecutive laps that were very, very fast, and after that it was perfect.”

Redding, who led much of the early part of the race, edged Iannone by eight-tenths of a second for second place, while behind the front three, Suter pair Julian Simon (Spain) and Stefan Bradl (Germany) engaged in a race-long fight for fourth, with Simon taking the position by two-tenths of a second on the final lap.

Frenchman Mike Di Meglio (Suter) was a lonely sixth, while world champion Toni Elias (Moriwaki) held onto seventh, forcing his way to the front of a spectacular dice featuring 10 bikes that raged for much of the race.

From sixth on the grid, Simon got the best of the start and led into turn one, and all 39 bikes managed to make it through the first turn.

From 11th on the grid, Australian Wayne Maxwell (Moriwaki) had a cautious start, and the 28-year-old clashed with Spaniard Hector Faubel (Suter) on the first lap at turn six, with both riders ending up in the gravel trap. Maxwell immediately remonstrated with the Spaniard, and was given a black flag for unsportsmanlike conduct.

"I got an average start, kept clean, and didn't push into turns one and two, then did the same through Honda (turn four),” Maxwell said.

“We went into Siberia (turn six) and I got cleaned up from behind by Hector Faubel. Someone of his experience should know a little better. I went over to him and he looked at me as if to say, 'What do you mean, it was my fault?' I told him exactly what I thought. But that's racing …”

De Angelis dropped to fourth in the early stages as Redding and Iannone continually swapped the lead, the Italian using the superior top speed of his Speed Up machine to blast past the Briton into Turn 1 before Redding re-claimed the lead in the braking zones at Turns 4 and 6.

De Angelis made his move on Iannone on lap seven, and after biding his time for several laps, careered past Redding down the start-finish straight on lap 14.

Winner of three Grands Prix this year, Iannone leapt past De Angelis for the lead a lap later, but paid the price for pushing too hard and running wide at Turn 6 on lap 16. De Angelis seized the chance, and within two laps, was a second clear of Redding and well on his way to becoming the seventh winner in the Moto2 category this season in 15 races.

While Redding was disappointed to miss out on his maiden Moto2 victory, he was buoyant after a weekend of being at the front of the field in every on-track-session.

“That’s one of the races I have really enjoyed - I was so pumped I can’t even remember what happened!” he said.

“The team put a really good bike together for me, and we’re just getting stronger and stronger.”

With two races remaining, World Champion Elias leads the standings on 271 points, while Simon (181 points) just holds onto second from Iannone, who has 179. Iannone had the fastest lap of Sunday’s race with a 1min 34.771sec tour on lap two.

With his victory, De Angelis moves to 14th on the table with 69 points.

Maxwell was one of just five riders not to make the finish, while of the other Australians, Ant West (MZ-RE Honda) was 21st, and wildcard Alex Cudlin (BQR-Moto2) finished in 30th place.