Moto2: Dixon Takes Second Win of the Season

Jake Dixon takes his second win of the season following a number of battles with second place finisher Aron Canet and championship leader Pedro Acosta. The podium was completed by the local racer, Albert Arenas. Acosta’s closest rival, Tony Arbolino, finished down the order in 17^th place.

Both Dixon and Ai Ogura made good starts when the lights went out, but it was the Brit who retained the lead into the first corner. Manuel Gonzalez improved to second place at turn two and immediately began looking to make a move on the race leader. Acosta gained one position on the first lap to sit in eighth place.

Gonzalez was able to make a move on Dixon during the second lap, but the pair swapped back and forth and by the third lap Gonzalez, Dixon and third placed rider Canet began to break away from the main pack.

A successful move for the lead was made by Gonzalez on the fifth lap into turn one. Dixon continued to drop down the order following a move from Canet on the Asterius GASGAS Aspar Team rider. Acosta continued his charge up the field and by lap 9 he was on the tail of Dixon.

The lead changed hands on lap 10 when Canet made a move into the first corner on his fellow countryman and Acosta made the same move but on Dixon. The following lap, Acosta was able to take second place from Gonzalez but this fighting behind Canet allowed the Pons Wegow Los40 rider to start to extend his lead at the front of the field.

Fermin Aldeguer was having a strong race in the chasing pack before he was given a long lap penalty on lap 12 for exceeding track limits. He took the penalty, but race control determined that he did not take it correctly, so he had to do it again. This dropped him down the order and took him out of contention for the higher points.

Gonzalez began to struggle around lap thirteen and Dixon was able to take the inside line at turn one and get past him. The British rider was able to join Acosta and Canet to form a small breakaway from the fourth placed rider.

It only took a few laps for Acosta to begin to shape up a move on Canet and the move was completed at turn 12 on lap 14. Canet immediately began looking to take the lead back and as Acosta had a wobble on lap fifteen, he hoped he could make a move.

But Dixon was able to make the move on Canet down the start-finish straight on lap 16 and took the inside line into turn one. Canet immediately repaid the favour by making a block pass at turn three and retook the lead at turn thirteen.

Acosta made the move on Canet on lap 17 to regain the lead and Dixon almost followed him through but was unable to. The Red Bull KTM Ajo rider made a mistake following that overtake and dropped down the order to fifth place after being passed by Dixon, Canet, Arenas, and Gonzalez.

The lead swapped hands once again with Dixon taking the lead at turn ten on lap 18. But the drama began slightly further down the field with Acosta having contact with Alonso Lopez and both went off the track, dropping them down to sixth and seventh respectively.

Canet continued to look at making a move on Dixon into the final lap at turns one, three and twelve but could not do so allowing Dixon to come across the line in first place, taking his second win of the season.

Arenas took his first podium of the season by finishing in third place. He was followed by Sergio Garcia, Gonzalez and Acosta who extended his championship lead. Ogura finished the race in seventh followed by Lopez who may be on the receiving end of a penalty due to cutting a corner when he rejoined the racetrack. Sam Lowes finished the race in ninth place with Celestino Vietti following just behind in tenth.

Feature image credit: MotoGP on TNT Sports on X (https://twitter.com/motogpontnt/status/1698257387352678879/photo/1)

CATALUNYA MOTO2 GRAND PRIX, BARCELONA – RACE RESULTS
POS	RIDER	NAT	TEAM	BIKE	TIME
1	Jake Dixon	GBR	Asterius GASGAS Aspar Team	(Kalex)	36m 51.330s
2	Aron Canet	SPA	Pons Wegow Los40	(Kalex)	36m 51.535s
3	Albert Arenas	SPA	Red Bull KTM Ajo	(Kalex)	36m 52.357s
4	Sergio Garcia	SPA	Pons Wegow Los40	(Kalex)	36m 53.588s
5	Manuel Gonzalez	SPA	Correos Prepago Yamaha VR46	(Kalex)	36m 53.992s
6	Pedro Acosta	SPA	Red Bull KTM Ajo	(Kalex)	36m 54.994s
7	Ai Ogura	JPN	IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia	(Kalex)	36m 55.569s
8	Alonso Lopez	SPA	Beta Tools SpeedUp	(Boscoscuro)	36m 55.644s
9	Sam Lowes	GBR	Elf Marc VDS Racing Team	(Kalex)	36m 55.937s
10	Celestino Vietti	ITA	Fantic Racing	(Kalex)	37m 0.059s
11	Joe Roberts	USA	Italtrans Racing Team	(Kalex)	37m 0.806s
12	Barry Baltus	BEL	Fieten Olie Racing GP	(Kalex)	37m 0.926s
13	Fermín Aldeguer	SPA	Beta Tools SpeedUp	(Boscoscuro)	37m 1.151s
14	Somkiat Chantra	THA	IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia	(Kalex)	37m 2.300s
15	Jeremy Alcoba	SPA	QJMOTOR Gresini Moto2	(Kalex)	37m 2.513s
16	Marcos Ramirez	SPA	OnlyFans American Racing	(Kalex)	37m 2.645s
17	Tony Arbolino	ITA	Elf Marc VDS Racing Team	(Kalex)	37m 8.189s
18	Zonta Vd Goorbergh	NED	Fieten Olie Racing GP	(Kalex)	37m 9.677s
19	Lukas Tulovic	GER	Liqui Moly Husqvarna Intact GP	(Kalex)	37m 16.867s
20	Borja Gomez	SPA	Fantic Racing	(Kalex)	37m 17.118s
21	Dennis Foggia	ITA	Italtrans Racing Team	(Kalex)	37m 17.518s
22	Mattia Rato	ITA	Pertamina Mandalika SAG Team	(Kalex)	37m 20.773s
23	Rory Skinner	GBR	OnlyFans American Racing	(Kalex)	37m 26.538s
24	Kohta Nozane	JPN	Correos Prepago Yamaha VR46	(Kalex)	37m 30.693s
25	Izan Guevara	SPA	Asterius GASGAS Aspar Team	(Kalex)	37m 43.416s
26	Yeray Ruiz	SPA	Forward Team	(Forward)	37m 44.538s
	Filip Salac	CZE	QJMOTOR Gresini Moto2	(Kalex)	DNF
	Bo Bendsneyder	NED	Pertamina Mandalika SAG Team	(Kalex)	DNF
	Senna Agius	AUS	Liqui Moly Husqvarna Intact GP	(Kalex)	DNF
	Alberto Surra	ITA	Forward Team	(Forward)	DNF