The winner of today’s Moto2 race and the new leader of the World Championship in the category has been found, make way for Ai Ogura! The Japanese rider was patient and successfully attacked the lead, for most of the race from Arón Canet, to claim another victory in the class.
After what happened in Moto3, expectations were high for Moto2, where Tony Arbolino started from pole position, with Celestino Vietti and Ai Ogura on the front row, Arón Canet, Diogo Moreira and Albert Arenas on the second.
22 days ahead, and the race started in the intermediate category!
Arbolino had a strong start, as did Ogura who was second, ahead of Vietti. Alonsó López was on the attack and was sixth, behind Arenas.
However, López saw bad luck hit him and crashed, with Ogura being quickly informed of this by the team.
A MASSIVE missed opportunity 🤯@AlonsoLopez_21 crashes out at the last corner of the first lap 💥#SanMarinoGP 🇸🇲 pic.twitter.com/DoGi3SoaFd
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) September 8, 2024
Canet overtook Vietti and was now third, he was the fastest rider on the track at this moment with a lap of 1:36.071s, while Arbolino led by 0.4s over Ogura. In the opposite trend was Sergio García in 22nd.
The #44 was strong and motivated and soon overtook Ogura, but the future Trackhouse Racing rider responded and regained the position, with Canet returning the move without losing much time. Arbolino continued with a strong pace and had a 0.5s advantage over Canet, but lost 0.1s in the following sector.
Canet continued to try everything to get closer to Arbolino and was succeeding, with the Italian’s advantage dropping to 0.279s, especially as the Spaniard got the fastest lap of the circuit again and the difference became… nonexistent: in an instant, Canet attacked successfully and moved to the front of the race!
However, the problems for Arbolino did not end there, as Ogura took advantage of a mistake by the Elf Marc VDS rider to reach second place.
👀 @TonyArbolino went in too deep there
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) September 8, 2024
And @AiOgura79 takes advantage 👊#SanMarinoGP 🇸🇲 pic.twitter.com/XrjGvxay4x
Sergio García was trying to recover and was 16th with ten laps to go in the San Marino GP. Canet led the race by 0.415s over Ogura.
This was the top ten with eight laps to go: Canet, Ogura, Arbolino, Vietti, Manuel González, Fermín Aldeguer, Moreira, Dixon, Arenas and Filipc Salac.
The gap between Canet and was varying a lot but didn’t seem to have a trend that favored the leader and it was expected that, at this pace, Ogura would start to get closer. Indeed, in the space of two laps the gap dropped from 0.4s to 0.2s and was getting shorter and shorter…
Within the points was García, in 13th, while at the front of the race Ogura overtook Canet, who immediately regained the position. Four laps to go!
On that same lap Ogura attacked again and now effectively took the lead. The Japanese rider was really trying to escape and already had 0.363s over Canet, further back Vietti was glued to Arbolino and Arbolino in turn was right next to Canet. The fight for second place was preparing to be fierce and contested until the end.
In the fourth sector Vietti tried everything and saw drama knock on his door! In front of his fans he was trying for the podium places but fell and was out of the race.
At the entrance to the last lap only a disaster would prevent Ogura’s victory!
It didn’t take long for the race to end, with Ogura confirming the victory and thus moving to the top of the world championship! Canet was second and Arbolino was third, while García, the former world leader, was 12th.