MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks

The intermediate class seemed to have unwisely followed the example of their premier class colleagues in Argentina and served us an exquisite but uneventful runaway victory. The proud owner was Jake Dixon, whose perfect launch off the line allowed him to take control of proceedings straight away and the Brit was untouchable for the remaining 21 laps. Manu Gonzalez limited the damage as best he could to secure a very comfortable second place, with the battle for 3^rd taking place over six second down the road. The final trophy on offer had a few more takers, Celestino Vietti eventually claiming it with a more sensible advantage over his challengers. 

While Dixon was robbing poleman Gonzalez into turn 1, Vietti made some early moves to quickly join the top 5 from 9^th on the grid, alongside Filip Salac. Just as impressive was Aron Canet, who launched from 10^th position but was already attacking Vietti for 5^th by turn 7. Diogo Moreira, Darryn Binder, Alonso Lopez and Dani Holgado completed the early top 10, while second row-starter Alex Escrig struggled to keep up with the early pace and dropped to 14^th. 

While Dixon continued to lead the way, all eyes were on teammate Salac, who briefly joined him at the front by the end of the second lap, relegating both Gonzalez and Ramirez. The championship leader was quick to recover second position but that was enough of an interruption to allow Dixon to run away at the front and Gonzlez struggled to keep up with his rival’s red-hot pace. Gaps seemed to be growing behind Gonzalez as well, with Salac dropping six tenths back on lap five and a mistake allowed Ramirez to take over the pursuit soon after – but the Spaniard found himself nearly two seconds behind the leading duo in the blink of an eye. Canet didn’t hesitate to further demote Salac over the next lap, with Vietti and Binder keen to have a go as well. Lopez led the next group a second and a half down the road, in the company of Albert Arenas, Holgado and Tony Arbolino. Izan Guevara briefly impressed as he went from 23^rd on the grid into the top 10 after a handful of laps, but didn’t last there for long before starting to lose ground once again. Another notable absence from the top 10 was that of Moreira, who retired after the first few laps.

Meanwhile, a lightning-quick Dixon extended his advantage over Gonzalez to a whole second by lap 8, all the while Canet joined the podium positions with an overtake on Ramirez at turn five. Canet’s progress seemed to stop there, as he had over three seconds to find to challenge for second at the halfway point of proceedings, but he got some brief respite from his rivals as well, when an unfortunate tangle at turn five between Ramirez and Salac ended with the Czech rider in the gravel and the Spaniard dropping to 6^th. However, the incident opened the red carpet for Vietti, who enjoyed the clear air and swiftly caught up with Canet by lap 13. The Italian made light work of the Spaniard at turn five but couldn’t quite drop him and Canet was able to stay in podium contention. One second down the road, Ramirez was now fending off Binder, while Arbolino got ahead of Lopez and Holgado in the fight for 7^th, and Escrig recovering to rejoin the top 10.

Back at the front, Dixon continued to maintain a safe two-second gap to Gonzalez, who in turn had nearly six seconds in hand over the fight for 3^rd. All eyes were on that battle, where Canet took advantage of a mistake from Vietti to reclaim 3^rd with seven laps to go but Vietti was able to retaliate next time around turn 7. Ramirez was not fully out of contention either, as he hinted at a late recovery – his gap halved from one second to half a second while the duo ahead were squabbling. While there was potential for a three-way battle in the final couple of laps, Vietti went unchallenged until the chequered flag and crossed the finish line 6.5 seconds behind Gonzalez and 10 seconds behind runaway victor Dixon. Canet missed out on the podium by four tenths of a second, with Ramirez completing the top five and Binder in a lonely 6^th. A late charge from Escrig helped him recover up to 7^th place, after dropping to the bottom of the point-scoring positions early on, fending off Lopez in 8^th. Holgado continues to impress as top rookie in 9^th, while Arenas completed the top 10 and Arbolino eventually faded to 11^th. 

Gonzalez’s second place was enough to keep him at the top of the championship standings by 11 points ahead of Dixon, with Canet a further point back. Ramirez and Senna Agius complete the top 5, 23 and 26 points back, while Vietti climbs significantly up to 6^th, 29 points behind the leader. 

Results: 

The final qualifying session in Argentina followed a very familiar pattern for the day, although Manu Gonzalez had to do an extra bit of work to secure back to back pole positions. Despite several challenges from Jake Dixon, the Spaniard was able to retaliate in the final couple of minutes of Q2 and post the first and only 1:40 lap time. That was enough to secure him pole, with Dixon settling for second two tenths back but with a good opportunity to challenge the championship leader in tomorrow’s race. The final place on the front row was a hotly disputed affair, with Alex Escrig making a surprisingly solid bid until Marcos Ramirez put in a late charge to demote his compatriot. 

Escrig still secured a fantastic 4^th place after comfortably escaping Q1, and will open the second row of the grid ahead of Diogo Moreira – who left it late in both Q1 and Q2 to make his move – and fellow Q1 graduate Filip Salac in 6^th. Alonso Lopez shares third row with Darryn Binder and Q1 leader Celestino Vietti, who was a looming threat for pole early on but eventually dropped to 9^th. 

Aron Canet had a pretty anonymous qualifying session, spending most of the session towards the bottom of the hierarchy and only saving the day with a 10^th place on his final flying lap. The Spaniard will be joined by Zonta Van Den Goorbergh and Tony Arbolino on the fourth row, with Mario Aji leading the way on row five, ahead of rookie Dani Holgado and Barry Baltus. 

Joe Roberts was a modest 16^th and shares sixth row with Adrian Huertas and Albert Arenas, while a disgruntled Deniz Öncü was first under the line in Q1 and had to make do with 19^th on the grid. David Alonso also had real hopes of making an escape from Q1 but eventually dropped to 20^th position.

Results:

The intermediate class completed their final practice outing in rather grey but dry conditions and it was a familiar picture at the top of the timing screens, with Jake Dixon hogging the limelight throughout FP2 and showing off solid race pace. Barry Baltus managed to close in to within a tenth of  a second of the leader late on, while Aron Canet got right back up to speed after an eventful Friday and climbed into third place on his final flying lap – two tenths behind Dixon. 

After leading the way on Friday, Manuel Gonzalez settled for 4^th on Saturday morning, but continues to be another of the favourites for Sunday. Despite narrowly missing out on Q2, Deniz Öncü was quick in FP2 and joined the top five, ahead of Darryn Binder and Celestino Vietti – the South African the only rider of the trio who safely made it to Q2 on Friday. 

Alonso Lopez, Filip Salac and Senna Agius completed the top 10 of the session, less than half a second slower than the leader. Although Dani Holgado held onto a Q2 place on Friday, David Alonso led the rookie battle on Saturday – finishing three places ahead of the Spaniard in 16^th, despite an early off-track excursion. 

Results:

Manu Gonzalez broke the existing Moto2 lap record from 2023 by seven tenths of a second in the afternoon timed practice session. The top 8 all dived under Alonso Lopez' 2023 record.

Alonso Lopez also brought an early end to the practice session, crashing at Turn 4 and leaving his bike laying in the middle of the track, bringing out the red flags with 1'16 left in the session. With so little time left, there was no point restarting, so the session was cut short.

The top 14 pass directly through to Q2.

Results :

The track dried out during the session, riders switching from wets to slicks halfway through. Track conditions are improving

Results:

A touch of cloud cover brought some welcome respite for the intermediate class ahead of their 22-lap charge, but Manuel Gonzalez needed no help in taking control of the race and securing his second victory in the class – and the championship lead as a bonus. Aron Canet demonstrated once again his proficiency in second places, helped somewhat by his rivals’ errors, while Senna Agius recovered from a long lap penalty to make a late bid for third and make his second appearance on the grand prix podium.  

Gonzalez only lost the spotlight briefly when Celestino Vietti got ahead of the poleman into the first corner, while front row starter Canet immediately faded to 6^th position, behind Agius, Darryn Binder and a fast-starting Izan Guevara – who went from 11^th on the grid to 5^th after a couple corners. However, the dream start didn’t last for long, as both Guevara and Binder soon received double long lap penalties for jumping the start. Marcos Ramirez, Jake Dixon, Diogo Moreira and Barry Baltus held onto the early top 10, although Dani Holgado was making some early progress to threaten that by lap 3, and the rookie soon found himself 8^th after the men ahead served their penalties. 

Lap 3 was a good one for Gonzalez as well, who reclaimed top spot, with Vietti and Agius hot on his tail, while Canet was finally released from the early squabble against Binder and Guevara but had a whole second to find on the trio ahead. Moreira was easily holding onto the Spaniard and although they were making no progress with the gap to the podium positions, the duo had dropped the next group another second down the road, including Ramirez, Baltus, Holgado and Dixon.  

Although not quite running away at the front, Gonzalez’s pace allowed him to find a tenth here and there and eventually stretch one second of advantage over Vietti by lap 10.  With Agius breathing down his neck, the Italian’s focus turned to defending second place, but with a limited threat to their podium positions, as Canet was still struggling to bridge the gap in 4^th. Disaster struck on lap 12, when contact between Agius and Vietti sent the Italian into the gravel at turn 10, which worked in Canet’s favour, as he suddenly found himself in second place. Moreira inherited 3^rd as well, with Agius rejoining in 4^th but immediately getting a long lap penalty for irresponsible riding. Helped by the battle behind, Agius was able to complete the penalty without losing position but was out of podium contention by three seconds.

Unaffected by the drama behind, Gonzalez enjoyed an advantage of three and a half seconds at the front, while Canet was finally able to ditch Moreira by one second going into the final 8 laps. With Agius still in no man’s land, the first real battle at that stage was for 5^th, where Ramirez was fending off Baltus and Dixon. Holgado was holding onto 8^th position, although struggling a little to hold onto the group ahead. 

The final four laps brought some reason for concern for Moreira, whose fading late pace left him eight tenths a lap slower than the recovering Agius, who was all over the back of the Brazilian one lap later. Agius made the first of several subsequent moves at the final corner and although Moreira’s tyres seemed to have had enough, the Brazilian repeatedly responded to the Australian’s advances in a very entertaining penultimate lap. Although Moreira kept close to Agius until the very end, he wasn’t given another opportunity to attack on the final lap and Agius claimed third place, almost four seconds after Canet crossed the finish line, and joining his victorious teammate on the podium. Moreira settled for 4^th, with Ramirez holding onto 5^th after distancing Baltus and Dixon over the last couple of laps. Holgado took a lonely 8^th place, while Filip Salac got past Alonso Lopez for 9^th on the last lap. 

Results: 

If there was little room for surprises in the other qualifying sessions of the day, the intermediate class at least decided to spice things up for the final couple of minutes of Q2. After giving Barry Baltus false hopes at a maiden pole, Manuel Gonzalez picked up the pace in the closing stages to claim a second career pole position in the final minute of the action. Having escaped from Q1 by the skin of his teeth and then spending most of Q2 at the bottom of the ranking, Celestino Vietti put in an excellent final couple of laps to climb straight into second place on the grid, only three hundredths of a second slower than the poleman. Meanwhile, Aron Canet was a bit more consistent on route to the final place on the front row. 

A late charge from Senna Agius also helped the Australian secure 4^th position, sharing the second row of the grid with Baltus, who got demoted to 5^th, and Q1 leader Darryn Binder. Marcos Ramirez, Jake Dixon and Alonso Lopez make up row three – the trio around four tenths of a second behind the leader – while Diogo Moreira completed the top 10. Izan Guevara and Deniz Öncü will be joining the Brazilian on row four, with Albert Arenas, Mario Aji and Dani Holgado on row five – the rookie easily escaping Q1. Fellow rookie Adrian Huertas also joined him in Q2, but had to settle for 18^th grid position, behind Filip Salac and Jorge Navarro, while Ivan Ortola missed out on Q2 by seven hundredths of a second. 

Results: 

The intermediate class battled through a predictably hot start to Saturday at Buriram to work on their race preparation, but two men still shined at the top of the timesheets. After Aron Canet held the spotlight for much of proceedings, Deniz Öncü robbed him in the final handful of minutes to take top spot by five hundredths of a second ahead of the Spaniard. Zonta Van Den Goorbergh joined them in the top three, a couple tenths off the lead and narrowly ahead of a rather surprising Mario Aji.

Celestino Vietti managed to climb into 5^th position while in the middle of a very consistent run, just ahead of Barry Baltus and the quickest man on Friday morning, Manuel Gonzalez. The Spanish trio of Marcos Ramirez, Jorge Navarro and Albert Arenas completed a top 10 covered by half a second, with Filip Salac missing out by another tenth. Yuki Kunii was the top rookie in FP2 in 12^th position, ahead of Alex Escrig, Jake Dixon and Practice leader Diogo Moreira in the top 15. 

Rookies Dani Holgado and Collin Veijer sandwiched Alonso Lopez at the bottom of the top 20, with low key performances from the likes of Tony Arbolino and Joe Roberts just behind. Rookie Ivan Ortola was left down in 25^th position after an early tumble at turn 9. 

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