Unbelievable, what an absolutely crazy race in Misano in Moto2, one of the best of the season and with a completely breathless finish! Celestino Vietti won in front of his home crowd after beating Arón Canet on the final straight by just 0.029s!
The conditions were very good for the Moto2 race, which had Arón Canet as the pole sitter, Joe Roberts and Tony Arbolino completed the front row of the grid, with Celestino Vietti, Jake Dixon and Fermín Aldeguer in the second.
At the start, the highlight was Arbolino who quickly moved to the front of the race and immediately tried to gain an advantage over the competition. Vietti was second and Canet third, Ai Ogura fourth, Aldeguer fifth and Roberts sixth.
Still on the first lap Arbolino had already managed to gain a 0.6s advantage over Vietti, with this increasing by 0.2s on the second. Zonta VD Goorbergh was the first to crash, at turn 14, with two laps completed in Misano.
With 18 laps to go, Deniz Oncu was the next to get on the ground, at a stage of the race where Vietti had recovered some time to Arbolino, with the difference between them now being just over half a second.
The next on the ground was Jaume Masiá, at turn 4, and it was not long before Sergio García also went down, as well as Dixon, both on the sixth lap of the race, two of the main candidates for victory in the championship.
Meanwhile Aldeguer joined Dennis Foggia, among the riders who had a warning for exceeding track limits, and seconds later Alex Escrig served a Long Lap, for the same reasons as his opponents.
With the race almost halfway through the top six remained unchanged, but the difference from Vietti to Arbolino was getting smaller and smaller, being just over two tenths at this stage.
Vietti kept up the chase, but gradually who was also joining the front duo was Canet: Vietti was 0.179s behind Arbolino, and Canet was 0.4s behind.
And unexpectedly, Vietti made a mistake with his bike, where he seemed to lose control of the front of his bike for 1s and Canet overtook, thus reaching second place, which earned a 0.5s advantage over Arbolino, in front.
The race came alive and Vietti was chasing Canet, with the two of them separated by 0.158s. Arbolino led with 0.251s over the #44. Four laps to go!
Now yes, finally there were moves! Arbolino was a bit wide and with one seat Canet and Vietti overtook, with Canet in front but Vietti also he was, for a second in the lead, but Canet responded and regained the lead immediately. Seconds later Vietti suffered again, as before but stayed on the bike, but opened "the door" to Arbolino, who thus ascended to second position.
Vietti was now 0.4s behind the front duo, and seconds later Arbolino had a small error but remained glued to Canet. There were two laps left now.
Within the second lap Arbolino returned to the lead, but went wide and Canet on the inside returned to the front of the race for a couple of seconds as Arbolino went, again, to the front. What a race finish!
Arbolino was gaining some distance to the chasing duo but at the entrance of the last sector of the last lap went wide once again and was overtaken by Canet and Vietti, who were now practically glued to each other!
On the last corner, Vietti put himself alongside Canet and it was the straight to the end, the final seconds and then... Vietti won and secured the victory by 0.029s!
🏁 #Moto2 RACE 🏁
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) September 22, 2024
CELESTINO VIETTI OUT OF NOWHERE STEALS THE WIN 🤯#EmiliaRomagnaGP 🏁 pic.twitter.com/0MbhH9iRs5
