Agius was joined on the podium by Vietti and Guevara

The Moto2 championship arrived at the Circuit of the Americas for the Red Bull Grand Prix of the United States this weekend, with Dani Holgado (CFMOTO Power Electronics Aspar Team) leading the championship ahead of Manuel Gonzalez (LIQUI MOLY Dynavolt Intact GP). Despite the pair having taken a win and a second each in the first two rounds, Gonzalez was behind Holgado thanks to a late realisation that there hadn’t been enough laps completed in Thailand resulting in half points being awarded for the first round of the season.

It looked as though David Alonso (CFMOTO Power Electronics Aspar Team) had claimed his maiden Moto2 pole position on Saturday as he set the fastest time in Q2, but he was later disqualified from the session due to a tyre pressure violation, which meant he would be starting the race from 17^th on the grid.

Barry Baltus (REDS Fantic Racing) was therefore awarded pole position, and was joined on the front row of the grid by Alonso Lopez (ITALJET Gresini Moto2) and Angel Piqueras (QJMOTOR – GALFER – MSI), with Celestino Vietti (HDR SpeedRS Team), Senna Agius (LIQUI MOLY Dynavolt Intact GP), and Alex Escrig (KLINT Racing Team) lining up on the second row. Row three was made up by Izan Guevara (BLU CRU Pramac Yamaha Moto2), Collin Veijer (Red Bull KTM Ajo), and Manuel Gonzalez. It had been a tricky start to the weekend for Dani Holgado, who found himself starting from 15^th on the grid after a pole and a win just last weekend in Brazil.

The race got underway and Barry Baltus made the most of his pole position to lead Alonso Lopez into the first corner. Holgado crashed at turn one, and took Joe Roberts (OnlyFans American Racing Team) with him, before a huge accident at turn eleven brought out the red flag to stop the race. There were seven riders involved in the incident which saw Alberto Ferrandez (BLU CRU Pramac Yamaha Moto2) appear to lose control of his bike on the way in to the corner, colliding with riders ahead of him and causing a knock-on effect as others tried to take avoiding action.

Of the riders involved in the incident, Veijer, Alonso, Dani Muñoz (Italtrans Racing Team), and Filip Salac (OnlyFans American Racing Team) were able to line back up on the grid, while Sergio Garcia (ITALJET Gresini Moto2), Ferrandez, and Piqueras were all transferred to the medical centre. At the time of posting, there is no official update on injuries to the riders, however all had been declared conscious before the race restarted.

As less than three full laps had been completed, we saw a full restart, which meant that Roberts and Holgado were also both allowed to restart the race.

Before the race restarted, Holgado was handed a long lap penalty for causing the crash with Roberts, while Munoz and Baltus were given the same punishments for “unsafe change of direction” during the first lap. Deniz Öncü crashed on the sighting lap but was able to remount and join the grid for the start.

The race got back underway, and this time Lopez was the leader into turn one, ahead of Vietti, Baltus, Agius, and Escrig. Baltus soon made his way into the lead of the race, clearly trying to make the most of being out front before he had to take his long lap penalty.

On lap three, Agius took the lead of the race, with Baltus pulling back in front of the Australian two laps later before immediately pulling into the long lap loop, which gave the lead back to Agius as Baltus dropped down to 8^th.

Veijer and Jorge Navarro (KLINT Racing Team) were both early crashers in separate lap four incidents, while David Alonso was on a charge through the pack having made his way through to pass Gonzalez for 4^th place from 17^th on the grid. Lopez had a moment on the seventh lap where he ran wide having been too hot into a corner which dropped him down to 7^th place, before Vietti made a move for the lead of the race.

Vietti held the lead for just over a lap before Agius engaged him in battle, eventually seeing him off and pulling enough of a lead on the last lap to wheelie across the line to take his first win (and first points) of the season. Agius and his team dedicated the victory to the memory of their late colleague (and Agius’ mechanic) Roberto Lunadei – affectionately known in the paddock as “Roby”.

Vietti took 2^nd place, with Guevara securing 3^rd and continuing his strong start to the season.

Alonso held on to 4^th place ahead of Gonzalez, with Baltus, Lopez, Escrig, Roberts, and Tony Arbolino (REDS Fantic Racing) rounding out the top 10.

With Holgado failing to score any points in the USA after finishing in 16^th, Gonzalez retakes the championship lead – 3.5 points ahead of Guevara, and Holgado is a further 3 points back.

Moto2 returns to action for the Estella Galicia 0,0 Grand Prix of Spain at Jerez from 24^th to 26^th of April.

Featured Image: motogp.com