MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks

After a gloomy start to proceedings, sunshine descended upon parc fermé in the intermediate class, mimicking somewhat Celestino Vietti’s weekend. The Italian started his Friday with a big crash in practice and ends Sunday on the top step of the podium, taking his first victory of the season on KTM’s playground. Alonso Lopez proved to be the best of the rest, the Spaniard returning to the podium in second position and becoming one of the big movers in the championship standings. Jake Dixon made a very late bid for third, taking the chequered flag a tenth of a second behind Lopez.

The only oversight in Vietti’s otherwise dominant performance was briefly letting Aron Canet pick up the lead at the start, after the poleman ran wide at the first corner. Sergio Garcia held station in 3^rd, but he was immediately under threat from Lopez and Dixon. Marcos Ramirez followed in 6^th, while Deniz Öncü made a lightning start from 14^th on the grid up to 7^th position, ahead of Tony Arbolino, Darryn Binder and Manuel Gonzalez in the early top 10. Having started 17^th, Aldeguer’s performance looked promising initially, as he climbed up to 12^th by the end of the opening lap, ahead of a sluggish Joe Roberts who lost a couple of positions off the line.

Canet’s time in the limelight didn’t last too long as Vietti retaliated at turn 4 to reclaim the lead on lap two, Canet soon losing another position to Lopez next time around the first corner. Early signs from Garcia suggested that the championship leader was struggling to keep up with the leading trio, dropping a full second behind them by lap five and with a big group in tow. Lap five was a much faster one for Vietti, who posted the fastest lap to extend one second of advantage over Lopez, who still had Canet stuck behind him. Alarm bells also rang behind them, where Dixon and Arbolino demoted Garcia to take over the pursuit and try to bridge a one and a half second deficit to the podium battle. Although Garcia seemed to be struggling early on, there was little reason for concern in the title fight at that stage, with Ogura out of action due to injury, Roberts struggling to break into the top 10 and Aldeguer again losing serious ground down to 17^th position by lap eight.

Meanwhile, Vietti was thriving at the front, maintaining his advantage around the one and a half seconds mark, despite Lopez and Canet throwing some red sector times in the mix. The Italian soon gave them a helping hand, as a mistake at turn 3 lost him almost all of his advantage on lap 10, but he didn’t take long to start building his gap back up. While Vietti kept Lopez about seven tenths behind, Canet was just trying to keep up with his compatriot, and the threat from behind was still limited, as Dixon’s deficit lingered around 1.3 seconds for a few laps. If Arbolino was still able to stick with the Brit, Garcia dropped over three seconds back, with Ramirez his immediate threat but the likes of Binder, Gonzalez, Somkiat Chantra, Öncü and Roberts not too far back either. Almost 10 seconds behind the championship leader, Aldeguer had lost another position to 18^th and was in danger of losing 4^th in the championship standings to his teammate. 

With Vietti’s gap ticking over the one second mark once again with eight laps remaining, Canet finally started showing his intentions at turn 9 but Lopez responded straight away in the ensuing battle for second. A scare for Canet at turn 6 also helped Dixon close in and the Aspar rider was fully in podium contention with six laps remaining – with no real threat from behind as Arbolino was left two and a half seconds back. If the race was already going less than ideal for Garcia in 6^th position, the Spaniard was soon forced to serve a long lap penalty for exceeding track limits, which dropped him to 13^th with four laps to go and he struggled to recover any ground. 

Vietti started the final lap with a healthy advantage of over two and a half seconds and while the poleman cruised to victory, Lopez and Canet were coming under serious threat from Dixon. Dixon attacked Canet at turn 1 for third and the Spaniard could not respond, but Dixon ran out of time to make a move for second and Lopez secured that place on the podium. Arbolino took the chequered flag nearly five seconds later in 5^th, Ramirez inheriting 6^th after Garcia’s penalty, with Binder, Chantra, Roberts and Filip Salac completing the top 10. Garcia’s late penalty woes left him 14^th at the finish line and adding only two points to his title tally, although not quite as bad of a day in the office as Aldeguer’s who finished down in 20^th position. 

Ai Ogura’s absence through injury ended up not costing him too much, the Japanese rider now 20 points behind championship leader Garcia, while Roberts reduced his deficit slightly to 32 points and Lopez became the fourth challenger on a 42-point gap. Aldeguer loses further ground and trails Garcia by 50 points. 

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