West on podium as Marquez seals Moto2 title

Journeyman Australian rider Anthony West has scored his second podium in just seven days in an Australian Moto2 Grand Prix that saw Marc Marquez seal the 2012 title.

The race was dominated by Pol Espargaro, who entered the weekend as the only man with a chance to deny Marquez the crown.

Espargaro took the lead from Marquez on the third of 25 laps before pulling away with metronomic consistency to win by a stunning 16.81s.

Briton Scott Redding also slipped by Marquez to hold second for the majority of the race before dropping to fourth in the final laps.

West ran fourth for much of the going, slowly edging his way towards the Redding/Marquez battle. Arriving on the back of the duo with just four laps remaining, West made two decisive moves – the second of which came on the very last lap – to move into the runner-up spot.

A last-corner charge from Marquez saw the Spaniard slip by Redding before falling 0.03s short of West at the flag.

Dominique Aegerter, Johann Zarco, Simone Corsi, Esteve Rabat, Randy Krummenacher and Takaahi Nakagimi completed the top 10, with less than a second separating the six riders at the completion of the race.

Finn Mika Kalio had been in the thick of the fifth-placed battle before falling at Turn 4 in the closing stages.

Regular front-runner Andrea Iannone was another to have a day to forget, with the Italian forced to retire on just the sixth lap as smoke poured from his Speed Up machine.

Thomas Luthi also had an early shower after a mid-race crash at Turn 4.

Championship winner Marquez will graduate to the MotoGP class next season, replacing Casey Stoner at the factory Repsol Honda team.

Results, Moto2, Phillip Island

Pos.	Points	Num.	Rider	Nation	Team	Bike	Km/h	Time/Gap
1	25	40	Pol ESPARGARO	SPA	Tuenti Movil HP 40	Kalex	169.2	39’26.486
2	20	95	Anthony WEST	AUS	QMMF Racing Team	Speed Up	168.0	+16.811
3	16	93	Marc MARQUEZ	SPA	Team Catalunya Caixa Repsol	Suter	168.0	+16.837
4	13	45	Scott REDDING	GBR	Marc VDS Racing Team	Kalex	168.0	+16.957
5	11	77	Dominique AEGERTER	SWI	Technomag-CIP	Suter	167.3	+26.018
6	10	5	Johann ZARCO	FRA	JIR Moto2	Motobi	167.3	+26.028
7	9	3	Simone CORSI	ITA	Came IodaRacing Project	FTR	167.3	+26.091
8	8	80	Esteve RABAT	SPA	Tuenti Movil HP 40	Kalex	167.3	+26.372
9	7	4	Randy KRUMMENACHER	SWI	GP Team Switzerland	Kalex	167.3	+26.474
10	6	30	Takaaki NAKAGAMI	JPN	Italtrans Racing Team	Kalex	167.3	+26.580
11	5	81	Jordi TORRES	SPA	Mapfre Aspar Team Moto2	Suter	166.6	+36.520
12	4	38	Bradley SMITH	GBR	Tech 3 Racing	Tech 3	166.6	+36.565
13	3	24	Toni ELIAS	SPA	Italtrans Racing Team	Kalex	166.6	+36.870
14	2	19	Xavier SIMEON	BEL	Tech 3 Racing	Tech 3	166.5	+38.220
15	1	63	Mike DI MEGLIO	FRA	Kiefer Racing	Kalex	166.1	+44.350
16		72	Yuki TAKAHASHI	JPN	NGM Mobile Forward Racing	FTR	165.8	+48.586
17		88	Ricard CARDUS	SPA	Arguiñano Racing Team	AJR	165.7	+48.763
18		18	Nicolas TEROL	SPA	Mapfre Aspar Team Moto2	Suter	165.7	+48.768
19		14	Ratthapark WILAIROT	THA	Thai Honda PTT Gresini Moto2	Suter	165.5	+52.487
20		23	Marcel SCHROTTER	GER	Desguaces La Torre SAG	Bimota	165.5	+52.569
21		8	Gino REA	GBR	Federal Oil Gresini Moto2	Suter	165.5	+52.707
22		75	Tomoyoshi KOYAMA	JPN	Technomag-CIP	Suter	164.2	+1’12.087
23		22	Alessandro ANDREOZZI	ITA	S/Master Speed Up	Speed Up	163.5	+1’21.455
24		82	Elena ROSELL	SPA	QMMF Racing Team	Speed Up	161.9	1 Lap
25		10	Marco COLANDREA	SWI	SAG Team	FTR	161.9	1 Lap
Not Classified
		36	Mika KALLIO	FIN	Marc VDS Racing Team	Kalex	167.4	2 Laps
		49	Axel PONS	SPA	Tuenti Movil HP 40	Kalex	166.5	2 Laps
		60	Julian SIMON	SPA	Blusens Avintia	Suter	166.5	2 Laps
		57	Eric GRANADO	BRA	JIR Moto2	Motobi	156.0	2 Laps
		12	Thomas LUTHI	SWI	Interwetten-Paddock	Suter	163.7	8 Laps
		29	Andrea IANNONE	ITA	Speed Master	Speed Up	165.1	21 Laps