Malaysian Moto2: Victory for Arbolino as Ogura crashes out

Tony Arbolino came out on top in his long battle with Ai Ogura to win the Moto2 Malaysian Grand Prix as his race rival crashed out of contention.
Tony
Tony

Tony Abrolino made a strong start from se𝐆cond and withsttod contsnt pressure from Ai Ogura to take his third win of the season in the Moto2 Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang, round ninteen of the championship.

The Elfꦛ Marc VDS rider had lead from lights o♑ut after his superb start, but had Ogura stalking around behind.

The Idemitsu rider made his move with six laps remaining and looked strong out fron📖t, attempting to pull out🍨 a gap on his Italian rival.

The #79, who started from pole, made th♓at move stic🐻k but an error saw Arbolino able to move back in front.

Lesson learnt, the Italian did not look back and took char✃ge of the race over the closing laps.

Ogura worked hard to find another shot at the win, i♊nstead of sitting on the twenty p🃏oints for the championship.

An ove🔥r-ambitious move on the final lap saw him in front for the briefest of moments, but out wide on the still damp track, his return to the lead lasted seconds as he crashed out at turn nine on the final lap.

It is just Ogura’s second time out of the points this season,🍸 with his only other DNF coming in the Portuguese round which saw a huge amount of falls in the 🍰trying conditions.

Until that moment, in terms of all-out action their game of cat and mouse faded behind Jake Dixon and title hop𝐆eful Augusto Fernandez as they battled their way around the track.

They were behind the the🦂n battle for the final podium spot, with rookies Manuel Gonzalez (Yamaha VR46 Master Camp) and Alonso Lopez (Beta Tools Speed UP) vying for the 🐷position.

Lopez went on to take second, a huge 11.411s behind Arbolino, but Gonzalez faded back into the clutches of the Dixon/Fernandꦐez fight.

The four had be♛en together on track before the in-fighting split them into two duos. There had been con🅷tact more than once as the Red Bull KTM rider battled with Dixon.

Now ahead ꦯthe Inde GasGas Aspar rider used his overtake of Gonzalez to pull out♒ a lead over the #37, and then took chunks out of Lopez to finish right behind him over the line for the final podium spot.

The Briti♐sh rider was exhausted in parc ferme from his efforts, with friend Fabio Quartararo quick to congratulate him.

Fernandez also found a wa�✤�y past Gonzalez for fourth, leaving his compatriot fifth.

Marcel Schrotter was the best of the🐲 rest in a distant sixth for Liqui 🔜Moly IntactGP.

 Cameron Beaubier was🥀 a distant s𝓰eventh for American Racing.

 

Canet stages comeback for eighth.

 

A very unlucky Aron Canet was caught up in the first la♏p crash, which saw Ogura’s Idemitsu Honda Team Asia team-mate Somkiat Chantra collect Pedro Acosta with Canet and Alessandro Zaccone caught up in the aftermath.

That dropped the Flexbox HP40 rider from the lead pack to 16th on lap one. The Spaniard had made it up to eleventꦗh by lap three and kept progressing as much as possible in a gapped field to finish a determined eighth at the chequered flag.

Jeremy Alcoba (Liqui Moly IntactGP) and Fermin Aldeguer (Beta Tools Speed Up) kept him company but did not overtake so took the chequered flag in ninth and ten🃏th respectively.

The gaps on track meant few changes in the re♛st of the points positions.

Filip Salac was a distant eleventh for Gresini, i👍n turn clear of Italtrans rider Lorenzo Dalla Porta who was twelfth.

Albert Arenas (Inde GasGas Aspar) won his battle with Bo Bends🐼neyder (Pertamina Mandalika SAG Team) for 13th.

The final point went to the Netherlands rider's team-mate Taiga Hada,ꦓ just his second points finish and second in a row after 13th at the last round.

 

Where does that leave the championship?

 

It is advantage Fernandez after Ogura’s spill. The Spanish rider moves back into the overall lead with his fourth place finish, now with a total of 251.5. Ogura didn’t gain a single point after having 2🧜0 in his grasp, still on 242, which is now 9.5 pointsꦍ behind Fernandez with one race remaining.

Alonso Lopez takes over as top rookie. The Spaniard is seventh overall and takes over from Pedro Acosta after his two crasheꦐs, with a total of 155.5 to his fellow countryman’s 152.

 

Crashes and penalties

 

David Sanchis (replacing Simone Corsi at MV Agusta Forward Racing was also involved in the first lap multi-crash so did not make it past the first lap. ﷽All the other debut riders finished the race with Kasma Daniel 19th (Petronas MIE Racing RW), Borja Gomez 20th (replacing Jorge Naravrro at Flexbox HP40) and Azroy Anuar the last of the 22 finishers on the second Petrona🦂s bike, in for Zonta Van Den Goorbergh.

Zaccone failed to finish, like Acosta after being caugth up in the lap one accident. Joe Ro⛄berts retired to the pits with a bike issue. Celestino Vietti saw his season continue to sli🍃de away, just like his bike at turn 15 on lap seven.

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