Pedro Acosta wins the San Marino Grand Prix ahead of Celestino Vietti and Alonso Lopez. Acosta finished the race with a lead of 6.3 seconds and extended his championship lead by 12 points. Tony Arbolino, his closest championship rival, finished the race in fourth place after starting in ninth.
Vietti and Manuel Gonzalez had a good start from the front row, but Acosta took the lead into the first corner and didn’t look back from there. All the riders made it through the first corners without any issues. Aron Canet made up one place to third place at turn three.
HERE WE GOOOOO!! 🚥@37_pedroacosta leads the #Moto2 field! ⚔️#SanMarinoGP 🇸🇲 pic.twitter.com/EoYPI4U5k9
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) September 10, 2023
Although he had a good start, Gonzalez had dropped down to fifth place by the end of the first lap. Filip Salac gained four places on the first tour of the circuit to cross the line in sixth place. This pair started to compete for fifth place.
Teammates Arbolino and Sam Lowes were battling with each other for space on the track with the Italian coming out on top and matching the race leader for lap times.
Senna Aigus crashed on the third lap causing a yellow flag in the second sector. Vietti and Canet started to work together, following the yellow flag, to catch up with Acosta with all three of these riders setting lap times in the one minute 36 second ballpark.
Arbolino successfully got past Salac for sixth place on the road on lap four just before another yellow flag came out due to Dennis Foggia and Zonta van der Goorbergh crashing in sector 4.
At the front of the field, Acosta continued to set fastest lap after fastest lap and kept increasing the gap to the chasing field behind him.
Further down the field, Somkiat Chantra and Joe Roberts were fighting for ninth place.
On lap 9, Aron Canet crashed out of third place at turn fourteen causing another yellow flag. On the same lap, Vietti set the fastest lap to attempt to close the gap to the leading rider.
Rory Skinner had to retire the bike on lap 11 and pulled into the pits.
Arbolino had started to close the gap to Gonzalez but had a wobble on lap 12 after going too high on the kerb through turn six and lost all the progress he had made.
Lopez had the front two riders in his sights but was 4.5 seconds behind them coming into lap thirteen and would struggle to catch them up, especially with Acosta’s pace.
Fermin Aldeguer had a race to forget after crashing at turn two on lap fifteen and on the following lap Lowes crashed at turn one.
Not possible to save that one! 👀@SamLowes_22 goes down but is OK 👍#SanMarinoGP 🇸🇲 pic.twitter.com/BDlSZjCV6G
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) September 10, 2023
Arbolino caught up to the back of Gonzalez once again and got past the Spaniard to take fourth place. Immediately, the Italian rider started to catch up to Lopez ahead of him.
By lap 17, Acosta had a lead of just over two second and by the end, the race lead extended to 6.3 seconds. Vietti and Lopez completed the podium followed by Arbolino and Ogura. Chantra had a good race finishing in sixth place ahead of Gonzalez who started on the front row.
Roberts had his second best finish of the season in eighth place ahead of Salac and Pasini who rounded out the top ten. The rest of the points scorers were Sergio Garcia, Jake Dixon, Bo Bendsneyder, Marcos Ramirez and Barry Baltus.
Feature Image Credit: Pedro Acosta (@37_pedroacosta on X (formerly Twitter))
| SAN MARINO MOTO2 GRAND PRIX, MISANO – RACE RESULTS | |||||
| POS | RIDER | NAT | TEAM | BIKE | TIME |
| 1 | Pedro Acosta | SPA | Red Bull KTM Ajo | (Kalex) | 35m 30.145s |
| 2 | Celestino Vietti | ITA | Fantic Racing | (Kalex) | 35m 36.450s |
| 3 | Alonso Lopez | SPA | +Ego SpeedUp | (Boscoscuro) | 35m 40.134s |
| 4 | Tony Arbolino | ITA | Elf Marc VDS Racing Team | (Kalex) | 35m 41.489s |
| 5 | Ai Ogura | JPN | IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia | (Kalex) | 35m 42.587s |
| 6 | Somkiat Chantra | THA | IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia | (Kalex) | 35m 43.305s |
| 7 | Manuel Gonzalez | SPA | Correos Prepago Yamaha VR46 | (Kalex) | 35m 44.052s |
| 8 | Joe Roberts | USA | Italtrans Racing Team | (Kalex) | 35m 50.495s |
| 9 | Filip Salac | CZE | QJMOTOR Gresini Moto2 | (Kalex) | 35m 50.668s |
| 10 | Mattia Pasini | ITA | Fieten Olie Racing GP | (Kalex) | 35m 51.904s |
| 11 | Sergio Garcia | SPA | Pons Wegow Los40 | (Kalex) | 35m 52.134s |
| 12 | Jake Dixon | GBR | Inde GASGAS Aspar Team | (Kalex) | 35m 53.045s |
| 13 | Bo Bendsneyder | NED | Pertamina Mandalika SAG Team | (Kalex) | 35m 53.892s |
| 14 | Marcos Ramirez | SPA | OnlyFans American Racing | (Kalex) | 36m 0.432s |
| 15 | Barry Baltus | BEL | Fieten Olie Racing GP | (Kalex) | 36m 2.692s |
| 16 | Jeremy Alcoba | SPA | QJMOTOR Gresini Moto2 | (Kalex) | 36m 8.818s |
| 17 | Alberto Surra | ITA | Forward Team | (Forward) | 36m 16.174s |
| 18 | Borja Gomez | SPA | Fantic Racing | (Kalex) | 36m 21.491s |
| 19 | Taiga Hada | JPN | Pertamina Mandalika SAG Team | (Kalex) | 36m 22.861s |
| 20 | Sean Dylan Kelly | USA | Forward Team | (Forward) | 36m 25.353s |
| 21 | Kohta Nozane | JPN | Correos Prepago Yamaha VR46 | (Kalex) | 36m 25.475s |
| Lukas Tulovic | GER | Liqui Moly Husqvarna Intact GP | (Kalex) | DNF | |
| Izan Guevara | SPA | Inde GASGAS Aspar Team | (Kalex) | DNF | |
| Sam Lowes | GBR | Elf Marc VDS Racing Team | (Kalex) | DNF | |
| Fermín Aldeguer | SPA | +Ego SpeedUp | (Boscoscuro) | DNF | |
| Rory Skinner | GBR | OnlyFans American Racing | (Kalex) | DNF | |
| Aron Canet | SPA | Pons Wegow Los40 | (Kalex) | DNF | |
| Dennis Foggia | ITA | Italtrans Racing Team | (Kalex) | DNF | |
| Zonta Vd Goorbergh | NED | Fieten Olie Racing GP | (Kalex) | DNF | |
| Senna Agius | AUS | Liqui Moly Husqvarna Intact GP | (Kalex) | DNF | |