Moto2: Acosta Extends Championship Lead with Indian GP Win

Pedro Acosta takes the inaugural Indian Grand Prix Moto2 race win at the Buddh International Circuit. He was joined by his closest championship challenger, Tony Arbolino, and American rider Joe Roberts.

Polesitter Jake Dixon got a great start when the lights went out but Acosta next to him got an even better one and was leading on the way down to turn one. From row two, Alonso Lopez got the best start on the grid and was on the inside of the entire pack and took the lead into turn one.

There was a large crash at turn one occurring in the middle of the pack with Jeremy Alcoba hitting Marcos Ramirez, who in turn hit Celestino Vietti. Somkiat Chantra and Taiga Hada were also involved. This incident caused a red flag, and the race was to be restarted at a shortened distance of 12 from the original starting positions.

Due to this incident, Alcoba was given a long-lap penalty for irresponsible riding.

On the second restart, both Dixon and Sergio Garcia got a good start with the Spaniard taking the lead of the race but ran deep and pushed Dixon out wide. Acosta took over the lead and started to break away from the rest of the field.

Also on the restart, there was a crash at turn four involving championship contender Aron Canet, Sam Lowes and Ai Ogura which caused a yellow flag and led Canet to retire on the following lap.

Arbolino carved his way through the field from seventh and was fighting with Garcia during the first few laps. They changed positions at almost every corner and fought cleanly throughout.

By lap 3, Acosta was the fastest rider on the circuit and started to increase the gap to the riders behind him.

Dixon and Lopez were fighting and made contact, resulting in both riders going down on the third lap at turn four. Dixon looked to be in pain, but was able to rejoin the circuit, as did Dixon. However, Dixon went down two laps later at turn twelve and retired the bike.

After being given a long lap penalty before the restart, Alcoba’s penalty was upgraded to a double long lap penalty for failing to take it in the required number of laps. He then crashed in the long lap loop when taking the penalty on the ninth lap.

Joe Roberts had a good qualifying and was on the back of the pack who were chasing down race leader, Pedro Acosta. The American rider was behind Garcia and the pair were fighting for the final podium place. On lap ten, Garcia made a mistake at turn twelve and opened the door to Roberts who was right behind him.

It was on the following lap where the Italtrans Racing Team rider was able to pass Garcia on the inside of turn nine. The move didn’t stick as Garcia passed Roberts at turn one on the next lap, but Roberts got back through. It was a constant back and forth on the final lap.

Roberts got through at turn nine but ran wide onto the grass and it would have been a certain penalty had he not given the position back to Garcia. The Spaniard then also ran wide and allowed Roberts to pass him into the final corner.

Acosta crossed the finish line in first place with a 3.5s lead ahead of Arbolino and Roberts rounded out the podium. He was followed by the rider he spent the final few laps battling, Garcia and Manuel Gonzalez completed the top five.

Zonta van der Goorbergh had his best finish of the year in sixth place followed by the returning Darryn Binder. Barry Baltus finished the race in eighth ahead of Marcos Ramirez and Filip Salac.

Feature Image Credit: Pedro Acosta (@37_pedroacosta) on X (formerly Twitter)

INDIAN MOTO2 GRAND PRIX, BUDDH INTERNATIONAL CIRCUIT – RACE RESULTS
POS	RIDER	NAT	TEAM	BIKE	TIME
1	Pedro Acosta	SPA	Red Bull KTM Ajo	(Kalex)	22m 29.844s
2	Tony Arbolino	ITA	Elf Marc VDS Racing Team	(Kalex)	22m 33.387s
3	Joe Roberts	USA	Italtrans Racing Team	(Kalex)	22m 36.350s
4	Sergio Garcia	SPA	Pons Wegow Los40	(Kalex)	22m 37.221s
5	Manuel Gonzalez	SPA	Correos Prepago Yamaha VR46	(Kalex)	22m 37.747s
6	Zonta Vd Goorbergh	NED	Fieten Olie Racing GP	(Kalex)	22m 41.281s
7	Darryn Binder	RSA	Liqui Moly Husqvarna Intact GP	(Kalex)	22m 41.488s
8	Barry Baltus	BEL	Fieten Olie Racing GP	(Kalex)	22m 42.069s
9	Marcos Ramirez	SPA	OnlyFans American Racing	(Kalex)	22m 42.422s
10	Filip Salac	CZE	QJMOTOR Gresini Moto2	(Kalex)	22m 42.634s
11	Dennis Foggia	ITA	Italtrans Racing Team	(Kalex)	22m 43.106s
12	Fermín Aldeguer	SPA	GT Trevisan SpeedUp	(Boscoscuro)	22m 43.895s
13	Izan Guevara	SPA	Inde GASGAS Aspar Team	(Kalex)	22m 45.094s
14	Albert Arenas	SPA	Red Bull KTM Ajo	(Kalex)	22m 50.761s
15	Sean Dylan Kelly	USA	Forward Team	(Forward)	22m 53.130s
16	Borja Gomez	SPA	Fantic Racing	(Kalex)	22m 57.054s
17	Alberto Surra	ITA	Forward Team	(Forward)	22m 58.063s
18	Bo Bendsneyder	NED	Pertamina Mandalika SAG Team	(Kalex)	23m 2.989s
19	Sam Lowes	GBR	Elf Marc VDS Racing Team	(Kalex)	23m 24.292s
20	Rory Skinner	GBR	OnlyFans American Racing	(Kalex)	23m 35.915s
21	Ai Ogura	JPN	IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia	(Kalex)	+1 lap
22	Alonso Lopez	SPA	GT Trevisan SpeedUp	(Boscoscuro)	+1 lap
23	Taiga Hada	JPN	Pertamina Mandalika SAG Team	(Kalex)	+3 laps
	Kohta Nozane	JPN	Correos Prepago Yamaha VR46	(Kalex)	DNF
	Jeremy Alcoba	SPA	QJMOTOR Gresini Moto2	(Kalex)	DNF
	Jake Dixon	GBR	Inde GASGAS Aspar Team	(Kalex)	DNF
	Aron Canet	SPA	Pons Wegow Los40	(Kalex)	DNF
	Somkiat Chantra	THA	IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia	(Kalex)	DNF
	Celestino Vietti	ITA	Fantic Racing	(Kalex)	DNS