Aron Canet wins the Portuguese Grand Prix, the Valencian’s first victory in five seasons.

Gresini’s Manuel Gonzalez started the Moto2 from pole position, Fermin Aldeguer qualified in second place with Aron Canet qualifying in third place. Britain’s Jake Dixon was declared unfit to race after not feeling too good after Fridays Free Practice sessions.

Lights out at the Portuguese circuit and Fermin Aldeguer lead the field into turn one, Alonso Lopez was in second place with Ai Ogura in third.

Alonso made an aggressive pass on his team-mate to take the lead. Aron Canet was running in sixth place. Fermin was handed a double long lap penalty due to a jump start, with 18 laps to go in the race.

The fastest rider on track was Tony Arbolino after five laps, the Italian was in seventh place. Canet made his way up to second place after Fermin took his first long lap penalty, putting the Sync SpeedUp rider down in tenth place.

American Racing’s Joe Roberts was having a solid ride in fifth place, Joe’s team-mate Marcos Ramirez was in eighth place. Aldeguer took his second penalty on lap eight, the Spaniard was now running in 12th place, what could he do in the remaining 13 laps?

Xavi Cardelus crashed out at turn three whilst his team-mate Canet was still running in his familiar position of second, that was until Lopez crashed out at turn 13, the front end tucked for the Spaniard. Canet was promoted to first with Roberts for company in second place.

Canet was managing his tyres for now with just nine laps to go, the gap between himself and Roberts was just 0.4s. Fermin was slicing through the field and was running in fifth place with Ogura in his sights.

Ayumu Sasaki crashed out with five laps to go, the rookie is yet to score any Moto2 championship points. Canet pulled the pin at the front with a 1.5s lead from Roberts. Fermin’s tyres were cooked after all his efforts to get into a podium finishing position.

Canet finally won his first ever Moto2 race, after five seasons in the class, Joe Roberts held onto second place, Gonzalez was third, Aldeguer finished in fourth place with Ai Ogura finishing in fifth place.

Featured Images: Joel Cooper Photography.