Magnificent Morbidelli starts 2017 season in style

Pole winner Franco Morbidelli of Italy yesterday stormed to a commanding win on his Kalex bike, taking the opening Grand Prix of the season ahead of veteran rider Thomas Luthi and Japan's Takaaki Nakagami.
Morbidelli, 22, raced his maiden Moto2 win in a time of 40.18.480 just seconds before a light drizzle forced a delayed start for the MotoGP riders at the Losail International Circuit (LIC).
Luthi, a veteran of 9 Moto2 wins, was 2.681 seconds behind while Nagakami (Idemitsu Honda Team Asia) grabbed a podium spot just 3.304 seconds off the pace set by Morbidelli who rides for EG 0,0 Marc VDS.
Miguel Oliveira (KTM, + 3.584 seconds) and Alex Marquez (Kalex, + 11.226 seconds) completed the top 5 in Moto2.
Mobidelli, who built a lead of more than 2 seconds over Luthi with 11 laps to go, was pleased with his season's first performance.
"It just feels great," Morbidelli said after edging Luthi to the top spot. "It was a good race. I have to tell that winning the first race of the season is a good sensations. I am happy to get the win in this fashion," the Italian said.
Swiss veteran Luthi (CarXpert Interwetten) chose his words carefully when he said: "I tried to fight with him. He took it easy at the start. Maybe easy is not the word but I could push him at the start."
The 30-year-old added: "I had good pace. I tried hard but he had that tiny head speed. I could have pushed more but I couldn't. It wasn't easy in testing for us so I will take this. I'd say 'well done' to the team."
Nagakami, 25, said he was happy with his first podium of the new season.
"I never look back. I always look ahead. If I look back, then I can;t focus ahead," Nagakami said yesterday. "In truth, I was a bit unstable at the start but I finished strong," he added.
Earlier, Qatar's Saeed Al Sulaiti crashed out in the 7th lap, just 11 minutes into the race. He remained unhurt. Remy Gardner also crashed out in what was the first lap of the race.
Reigning Moto3 World Champion Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Ajo), coming off injury, struggled and finished in 20th spot.
Earlier in the evening, Joan Mir headed a Honda 1-2-3 as the Spaniard produced an 'amazing' result to grab the honour's in the season's first Moto3 Grand Prix by edging John McPhee and Jorge Martin to the top spot.
Mir showed little rust by clocking a time of 38.27.364 to win the 18-lap race under lights at LIC. It was Mir's second career win.
McPhee, the British Talent Team rider, was just 0.135 seconds slower than Mir while Martin - who was on pole for the race - was 0.218 off the pace set by the day's winner.
Aron Canet, also of Honda, (+0.252 seconds) and Romano Fenati (+0.453) completed the top five.
Mir - who started in 6th spot in second row - was thrilled with the outcome in the first race of the season.
"I can't believe it. It was amazing race, an amazing result for me," Mir said. "It is just amazing to begin the year like this," he added.
"I want to thank my team for this great result," the Honda star said. "I kept saying all week this bike is great. The race was tough but the end was great," he said.
"I have to say it was an amazing start to my season," Mir said.
McPhee sounded relieved with his second-finish.
"Yes, I can't believe how well we did as a team. In the end, everything seemed to go well. I strayed a bit in the race but I have to say I ticked all the boxes overall," McPhee said.
"This is a great start to the season. All week we worked extremely hard and it paid off," the 22-year-old Briton said.
Third-placed Martin was ecstatic with his result in the new season.
"It was hard at the beginning but once I got calmer, I did well," Martin, 22, said. "I tried to catch the group at the top but I will say I am happy with this result.
"I am extremely pleased that I finished third," Martin said.
The season's next race will be held in Argentina on April 9 at the Termas de Río Hondo Circuit.