The impressive rookie was joined on the podium by Jake Dixon and Diogo Moreira

The Mobility Resort Motegi was the scene of round 17 as the Moto2 World Championship arrived in Japan for the first of four “flyaway” races. Championship leader Manuel Gonzalez (LIQUI MOLY Dynavolt Intact GP) was so focussed on setting the fastest lap in qualifying that he left pit lane before the session had officially started. He noticed in time and waited a few seconds for the green light before setting off to take his 7^th pole position of the season – and a 500 Euro fine. Gonzalez was joined on the front row of the grid by (CFMOTO Power Electronics Aspar Team) rookie teammates Dani Holgado and David Alonso.

Celestino Vietti (Beta Tools SpeedRS Team) headed up row two, ahead of championship contender Diogo Moreira (Italtrans Racing Team), and Jake Dixon (ELF Marc VDS Racing Team). Joint on points in the championship with Moreira, Aron Canet (Fantic Racing Lino Sonego) had a difficult start to the weekend – having to face Q1, and failing to progress through to Q2 for the first time since 2023, means that Canet started the race from the 8^th row of the grid in 22^nd.

As the lights went out to start the race, Dani Holgao leapt into the first corner ahead of the pack, and other than a brief moment where Moreira took the lead towards the end of the first lap, no one was able to touch him. The Spaniard was strong at the front of the race, and was able to pull out a lead of over four seconds before slowing towards the end of the race and allowing Dixon – who had impressive late-race pace – to close the gap to just over one second across the line.

Both Zonta VD Goorbergh (RW – Idrofoglia Racing GP) and Daniel Muñoz (in again for Deniz Öncü at Red Bull KTM Ajo) crashed out of the race on the first lap. Tony Arbolino (BLU CRU Pramac Yamaha Moto2) had a strong start to the race having hard arm-pump surgery after the conclusion of the previous round at Misano. He made his way up to 2^nd place where he remained until Dixon passed him following a wobble for the Italian at the final turn on lap 10. Arbolino continued to fade back as the race progressed and did look to be in pain back in his garage after the race, but was still able to take a solid 6^th place finish.

Manual Gonzalez had a tricky race – pushed wide at the first corner following a chain reaction of riders avoiding a strong move from Moreira on lap one, he dropped to 9^th. As Gonzalez attempted to pass Celestino Vietti for 8^th place, the pair made contact and Vietti’s race ended in the gravel. The incident was placed under investigation and Gonzalez was handed a long lap penalty having been deemed to have caused the crash. A run around the long lap loop saw Gonzalez drop back down to 9^th, but he was able to get his head down and fight back to finish the race in 5^th place.

Jake Dixon made his way through from 6^th on the grid to return to the podium in 2^nd place, but the Brit was disappointed with his performance, saying he believed the bike had the pace to win, but he took too long to get going. Moreira wasn’t able to match the pace of Dixon and took 3^rd place, which allowed him to close the gap to Gonzalez in the championship by five points to 34.

A difficult weekend for Aron Canet concluded with a 15^th place finish. Scoring only one point this weekend means that Canet is now 49 points behind Gonzalez, while Barry Baltus’ (Fantic Racing Lino Sonego) 7^th place finish sees him close the gap to his teammate to just seven points.

Moto2 returns to action for the Pertamina Grand Prix of Indonesia at the Mandalika Circuit next weekend (3^rd – 5^th October).

Featured Image: motogp.com