The championship was on the line for Pedro Acosta this weekend and it required him to be 75 points ahead of Tony Arbolino at the end of the weekend. Would the Spaniard be able to achieve this?
Arbolino would have a tough start as he was one of the front runners who had to go through the first qualifying session but was in the top four so made it through to qualifying two. Filip Salac, Sam Lowes, and Izan Guevara also made it through to the second part of qualifying.
Unfortunately, Salac crashed in Q2 so was unable to set a representative time, but the session ended with Fermin Aldeguer on pole, Acosta in second and Albert Arenas in third. Arbolino qualified in eighth place.
When the lights went out on Sunday, Aldegeur had a good start from pole position, but it looked as though there may have been a jump start from Aron Canet slightly further down the field. This was confirmed when he was given a double-long lap penalty from the stewards.
Disaster for Aron Canet! 😔
He jumped the start and will have to do a double long lap penalty! 👀#ThaiGP 🇹🇭 pic.twitter.com/mFwpuDEIpu
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) October 29, 2023
Marcos Ramirez had a great start from the second row and was riding around in third place at the start of the first lap.
Alberto Surra crashed on the first lap causing a yellow flag in sector three.
Aldeguer started to dominate from the front of the field by setting fastest lap after fastest lap and this was only hindered by yellow flags in sectors two, three and four on the third lap caused by Taiga Hada and Joe Roberts.
There was a crash involving Jake Dixon on the fifth lap where he and Celestino Vietti collided after their line merged. Dixon was still recovering from his dislocated shoulder but seemed to have escaped any further injury.
Vietti also crashed out on the same lap, but this was unrelated to the Dixon incident.
Celestino Vietti's race ended a few corners later! 😔
As @TonyArbolino was overtaking him, he lost the front 💥#ThaiGP 🇹🇭 pic.twitter.com/kyvQfkQnQ5
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) October 29, 2023
On lap eight, Sergio Garcia crashed out at turn five causing yellow flags in that sector.
Arbolino needed to finish as high as he could to ensure that the championship would continue on to the next round in Malaysia and he did that by first getting past Alonso Lopez. He was able to fight through the chasing pack to get to fourth place.
On lap sixteen, race leader Aldeguer made a mistake and Acosta closed the gap down but the Beta Tools SpeedUp rider was able to settle back down and began to extend the lead once again.
Arbolino would have been happy to see behind him that Ai Ogura was battling with Ramirez and Arenas which made him secure fourth place in this race.
Over the finish line, Aldeguer finished first by 3.481s from Acosta and local rider Somkiat Chantra in third place. As Arbolino finished in fourth place, Acosta’s lead in the championship was not over 75 points, meaning that the championship will be fought for at least one more round.
Feature Image Credit: Speed Up Team
| THAILAND MOTO2 GRAND PRIX, BURIRAM – RACE RESULTS | |||||
| POS | RIDER | NAT | TEAM | BIKE | TIME |
| 1 | Fermín Aldeguer | SPA | Beta Tools SpeedUp | (Boscoscuro) | 35m 20.880s |
| 2 | Pedro Acosta | SPA | Red Bull KTM Ajo | (Kalex) | 35m 24.361s |
| 3 | Somkiat Chantra | THA | IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia | (Kalex) | 35m 30.674s |
| 4 | Tony Arbolino | ITA | Elf Marc VDS Racing Team | (Kalex) | 35m 33.803s |
| 5 | Ai Ogura | JPN | IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia | (Kalex) | 35m 35.331s |
| 6 | Marcos Ramirez | SPA | OnlyFans American Racing | (Kalex) | 35m 35.696s |
| 7 | Albert Arenas | SPA | Red Bull KTM Ajo | (Kalex) | 35m 35.910s |
| 8 | Alonso Lopez | SPA | Beta Tools SpeedUp | (Boscoscuro) | 35m 39.240s |
| 9 | Izan Guevara | SPA | Inde GASGAS Aspar Team | (Kalex) | 35m 40.678s |
| 10 | Manuel Gonzalez | SPA | Correos Prepago Yamaha VR46 | (Kalex) | 35m 41.444s |
| 11 | Aron Canet | SPA | Pons Wegow Los40 | (Kalex) | 35m 41.842s |
| 12 | Dennis Foggia | ITA | Italtrans Racing Team | (Kalex) | 35m 45.078s |
| 13 | Jeremy Alcoba | SPA | QJMOTOR Gresini Moto2 | (Kalex) | 35m 46.473s |
| 14 | Sam Lowes | GBR | Elf Marc VDS Racing Team | (Kalex) | 35m 47.406s |
| 15 | Darryn Binder | RSA | Liqui Moly Husqvarna Intact GP | (Kalex) | 35m 54.445s |
| 16 | Bo Bendsneyder | NED | Pertamina Mandalika SAG Team | (Kalex) | 35m 54.596s |
| 17 | Filip Salac | CZE | QJMOTOR Gresini Moto2 | (Kalex) | 35m 54.614s |
| 18 | Barry Baltus | BEL | Fieten Olie Racing GP | (Kalex) | 35m 56.037s |
| 19 | Alex Escrig | SPA | Forward Team | (Forward) | 35m 58.466s |
| 20 | Rory Skinner | GBR | OnlyFans American Racing | (Kalex) | 36m 3.411s |
| 21 | Mattia Casadei | ITA | Fantic Racing | (Kalex) | 36m 16.432s |
| 22 | Kohta Nozane | JPN | Correos Prepago Yamaha VR46 | (Kalex) | 36m 25.700s |
| 23 | Lukas Tulovic | GER | Liqui Moly Husqvarna Intact GP | (Kalex) | 36m 48.673s |
| Zonta Vd Goorbergh | NED | Fieten Olie Racing GP | (Kalex) | DNF | |
| Sergio Garcia | SPA | Pons Wegow Los40 | (Kalex) | DNF | |
| Celestino Vietti | ITA | Fantic Racing | (Kalex) | DNF | |
| Jake Dixon | GBR | Inde GASGAS Aspar Team | (Kalex) | DNF | |
| Joe Roberts | USA | Italtrans Racing Team | (Kalex) | DNF | |
| Taiga Hada | JPN | Pertamina Mandalika SAG Team | (Kalex) | DNF | |
| Alberto Surra | ITA | Forward Team | (Forward) | DNF | |