Tom Lüthi 3rd in the French Grand Prix of Le Mans
After a great start and a strong battle at the beginning of the race with the championship leader Franco Morbidelli from Italy, Thomas Lüthi (carXpert Interwetten) took the lead of the French Moto2 Grand Prix heading into lap seven of the race before a small contact with his big rival a few moments later forced the Swiss rider to allow two others, Alex Marquez and Francesco Bagnaia, to get in front of him. A new race then started for Lüthi fighting for the third step of the podium: Tom found a gap with four laps to go to pass Alex Marquez and grab his fourth podium in five races this year. Jesko Raffin (Garage Plus Interwetten) unfortunately struggled to get into a good pace at the beginning of the race before he started putting solid lap times in the second half of the Grand Prix. He was classified 23rd. Frédéric Corminboeuf, the boss of the two Swiss teams, sums up the day: “Five races and four podiums, the start of the season has been very positive for Tom. I really appreciated his aggressiveness at the beginning of the racer before he started to experience some problems. We need to keep working and we will do so on Monday here in Le Mans when we are testing here. We are getting closer to the victory. From now on we really want it! Jesko struggled to find a good rhythm before he started doing interesting lap times later on; unfortunately, he lost a lot of time overtaking his first rivals. The next couple of days we will work on this with him to get him going from the start.”
He said…
Thomas Lüthi (carXpert Interwetten, 3rd):
“I am obviously happy with this podium after the difficult Spanish Grand Prix. It is nice but it’s also true that I’m disappointed because today I had to battle with my bike a lot. The whole weekend I had a better feeling than during the race, maybe due to the increased temperature. Tomorrow’s test will be important to better understand what might have happened and to prepare for the next Grand Prix in Mugello – I love that track although I suspect my Italian friends will be very strong there once again.”
Le Mans (Frankreich). FrenchGP, Race Moto2: 1. Morbidelli (ITA, Kalex), 26 laps, 42’17.557 (154.300 km/h); 2. Bagnaia (ITA, Kalex), + 1.714; 3. Lüthi (SWI, Kalex, carXpert Interwetten), + 5.837; 4. A. Marquez (SPA, Kalex), + 6.212; 5. Pasini (ITA, Kalex), + 13.537; 6. Aegerter (SWI, Suter), + 14.945; 7. Nakagami (JPN, Kalex), + 16.413; 8. Corsi (ITA, Speed Up), + 16.681; 9. Vierge (SPA, Tech 3), + 17.163; 10. Hernandez (COL, Kalex), + 17.605; 11. Syahrin (MAL, Kalex), + 22.528; 12. Schrötter (GER, Suter), + 22.909; 13. Cardus (SPA, KTM), + 23.801; 14. Cortese (GER, Suter), + 24.322; 15. A. Pons (SPA, Kalex), + 25.959. Further: 23. Raffin (SWI, Kalex, Garage Plus Interwetten), + 49.913. 25 classified. Lecuona (SPA, Kalex, Garage Plus Interwetten), victim of a crash in FP3, did not start the race.
World Championship (5/18): 1. Morbidelli, 100 points; 2. Lüthi (carXpert Interwetten), 80; 3. A. Marquez, 62; 4. Oliveira (POR, KTM), 59; 6. Bagnaia, 53; 7. Aegerter, 37; 8. Vierge, 32; 9. Marini (ITA, Kalex), 31; 10. Corsi, 27. Further: 22. Raffin (Garage Plus Interwetten), 5. 25 classified.
