MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks

The intermediate class served a tense final race of the season, followed by a particularly joyful podium, as Aron Canet celebrated his fourth victory of the year while waving the Valencian flag. Although missing out on a win by only nine hundredths of a second, Manuel Gonzalez seemed pretty happy with second, as it also secured him third in the world championship, while a final corner move on the world champion handed Diogo Moreira a maiden podium in Moto2 and the Rookie of the Year title. 

Canet didn’t have it all his own way from the start, when a big wheelie off the line allowed Gonzalez to take the lead, ahead of Ai Ogura and Filip Salac, while Canet dropped to the bottom of the top 10. A chaotic couple of laps ensued, with Jake Dixon finding himself mid-field after running wide at the first corner and then crashing out on the opening lap, taking Jorge Navarro with him in the gravel. Zonta van den Goorbergh tagged the back of Celestino Vietti at the start of lap 2, the incident taking both riders out of action and pushing Deniz Öncü well wide. Once things finally settled in the lead group, Gonzalez was being chased down by Salac, Ogura and Moreira, with Canet back into the top five by lap 3. Having started 18^th on the grid, Fermin Aldeguer quickly got up to 6^th but was yet to serve his long lap penalty for the incident with Tony Arbolino in Thailand. Senna Agius, Alonso Lopez, Sergio Garcia and Izan Guevara completed the early top 10.

By lap 4, Canet had become the main threat to Gonzalez’s lead, the poleman making quick work of Salac and Ogura and the lead finally changed hands at turn 14. While Ogura just about held onto the leaders, half a second behind the duo, Salac started sliding down the order. Aldeguer relinquished 4^th position to Moreira once he served his penalty and the Spaniard dropped to 13^th place. Agius was very keen to get involved in the battle for 4^th against Moreira, as the duo were battling for rookie of the year honours, but with plenty of rivals behind them as well, including Salac, Garcia, Lopez, Guevara and Marcos Ramirez in the top 10. Aldeguer was back knocking at the doors of the top 10 by lap 6 and made his move on Ramirez only one lap later. 

Canet was unchallenged as soon as he took the lead, enjoying half a second of space at the front, but Gonzalez was maintaining that gap, while also seemingly dropping the pursuit led by Ogura nearly a second back by lap 10. The world champion had Moreira and Agius close on his tail, with Salac and Garcia not too far back either, while Aldeguer had recovered to 8^th position and was trying to close an 8-tenth gap to the fight for 3^rd. Lopez did not seem to have the pace to match and had to let his teammate go, coming under threat from Guevara at the bottom of the top 10. 

Canet managed to extend his advantage to almost a second by the halfway point of proceedings, while Gonzalez was managing the same gap over the fight for 3^rd that was simmering nicely. Ogura was still leading that group but could not shake Moreira off and the rookie was waiting to pounce. Agius was no longer a threat as he seemed to be fading mid-race, dropping behind Salac, Aldeguer and Garcia, and although there was no immediate threat from behind, where Guevara led the next group a second back, that gap soon shrunk.

With no prospect of a change at the front, all eyes were on the final podium position, where Moreira was struggling to find a way past the world champion. Although he was yet to attempt an overtake, the airtime was welcome in showing off Ogura’s lovely golden livery. Salac didn’t seem to have the speed to get involved, dropping a second back, while keeping Aldeguer at arm’s length, probably helped by the Spaniard running out of steam after his early recovery from the long lap penalty. Aldeguer’s pace seemed to be dropping going into the final handful of laps and it allowed Garcia to take advantage and snatch 6^th, but it was nowhere near enough to stay in contention for third in the championship. 

Things were starting to look promising at the front going into the final 3 laps, as Gonzalez suddenly got back into victory contention, finding himself only three tenths of a second behind Canet. The Gresini rider seemed to have a little more in terms of pace in the closing stages, but getting past was another story and he never found an opportunity for a move. Meanwhile, the duo behind was getting closer too, despite exchanges finally starting between Ogura and Moreira. The rookie seemed to make a move stick at the start of the final lap but before he could catch up with the victory battle, Ogura responded at turn 10. Moreira took the final chance on offer to snatch back a podium position at the last corner, crossing the finish line only four hundredths of a second ahead of the world champion. Salac finished a lonely 5^th, with Garcia scoring his best result in the second half of the season in 6^th, ahead of solid recoveries from Guevara and Arenas. Aldeguer’s pace fell off a cliff in the closing laps, dropping him behind teammate Lopez and into 10^th position, while Agius faded all the way down to 13^th place. 

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