MotoMatters.com | Kropotkin Thinks

The weather behaved in Japan and allowed a dream weekend to unfold for Honda Team Asia, with Somkiat Chantra celebrating his first victory of the season after proving untouchable in every session and teammate Ai Ogura joining him on the podium in his home race. Not even Pedro Acosta could prevent the Chantra parade but the Spaniard extended a healthy advantage in the world championship with a third place at Motegi. 

Chantra had made a perfect start from pole position and was already checking out at the front by lap two, while Jake Dixon and Alonso Lopez got ahead of Ogura at the start but a mistake from Dixon at turn five was punished by both Lopez and Ogura – the Spaniard enjoying some exchanges with his Japanese colleague before having to take to the penalty loop for his indiscretions in India. Acosta made his own mistakes on the first lap, which dropped him to seventh position, but he made quick work of Sam Lowes and Filip Salac to rejoin the top five, while Manuel Gonzalez, Sergio Garcia and Joe Roberts completed the early top 10 - a notable presence was that of Garcia, who had negotiated his way into ninth place after starting 14th on the grid. Tony Arbolino had made modest progress from 13th on the grid, only up to 11th position, while Aron Canet struggled in the opening laps and faded down to 13th. 

Chantra’s escape seemed successful after just three laps, the poleman two seconds ahead of the pursuit now led by teammate Ogura, followed by Lopez, Acosta and Dixon but with a sizeable group still in tow. Once Lopez served his long lap penalties on laps five and six, he dropped from third to tenth place and allowed Ogura some breathing room in second place. Acosta was left leading the pursuit but was slow to close the one second gap to Ogura, while slightly distancing Dixon. After Lowes crashed out on lap seven, Salac inherited fifth place, while a crash for Garcia on lap 10 handed sixth to Gonzalez. A milder mistake from Roberts running through the gravel at turn 10 left Lopez and Ramirez in the lead of the group battling for seventh, also including Arbolino, Canet, Zonta van den Goorbergh and Darryn Binder. That particular group had to provide the entertainment for the remaining eight laps, as the first six men were not within reach of each other. 

Although Chantra’s lead over Ogura had reduced to one and a half seconds, it stabilised there with seven laps left and the only threat to the podium seemed to come from Dixon, whose late pace hinted at reeling Acosta in. However, the threat was brief, as Acosta responded to keep the Brit one second behind and the leading four kept their positions until the chequered flag, with lonely rides for Salac and Gonzalez in the top six. Ramirez resisted a late charge from Canet to claim seventh, while Zonta van den Goorbergh made some late progress into ninth, with Binder closing the top 10. A fading Lopez could not resist Arbolino’s late attacks or stop Roberts’ recovery, the Spaniard dropping to 13th position. 

Acosta’s podium and Arbolino’s continued struggles mean that the Spaniard has extended his lead in the world championship to a sizable 50 points over the Italian, with Dixon a distant 93 points back. 

Results: 

Although the cloud cover was getting persistently darker, Somkiat Chantra continued to enjoy a perfect weekend at Motegi, leading all three practice sessions and then going on to improve the all time lap record for the intermediate class. The Thai rider was once more the only man in the 1:49s and secured a convincing pole position by a tenth of a second. To make things even better for the Honda Team Asia squad, Ai Ogura made a late move for second, to secure his team a one-two on home soil. After narrowly escaping Q1, Jake Dixon found some more speed in Q2 and climbed all the way onto the front row of the grid, although was never a match for the poleman. 

Pedro Acosta got demoted to the front of the second row by Ogura’s late time attack and the world championship leader will start just ahead of Filip Salac and Q1 victor Alonso Lopez – although the Speed Up rider won’t stay there for long due to a double long lap penalty for his adventures in India. Birthday boy Aron Canet opens third row ahead of Sam Lowes and Fermín Aldeguer, with Manuel Gonzalez rounding out the top 10 positions.

Joe Roberts’ late attack promoted him to the middle of fourth row, ahead of Marcos Ramirez, while an underwhelming Q2 left Tony Arbolino on an unhelpful fifth row. The Italian will be sharing with Sergio Garcia and Zonta van den Goorbergh, whose session started with a tumble at turn two. Dennis Foggia, Barry Baltus and Darryn Binder complete sixth row, over a second behind the poleman, while Izan Guevara was best of the rest in Q1, missing out by a tenth of a second. 

Results:

After a quick start on Friday, Somkiat Chantra allowed some other people to share the spotlight on Saturday morning, before swooping back in at the chequered flag to post the first 1:49 time of the weekend and nearly threaten the lap record. Teammate Ai Ogura was one of those people, briefly holding top spot in the final five minutes, before taking a tumble at turn two and settling for second. Pedro Acosta was quick to claim the lead at the start of P3, before dropping to third, four tenths behind the leader.

Sam Lowes in fourth was half a second slower than Chantra, closely followed by Fermín Aldeguer and Joe Roberts. Marcos Ramirez enjoyed some time at the front in the final couple of minutes of the session, but it was short lived due to a yellow flag infringement, which saw him demoted back to seventh position. Tony Arbolino was gently sliding down the rankings towards the end of the session, but his final lap promoted him back into eight place, with Manuel Gonzalez and rookie Sergio Garcia completing the top 10. A solid Saturday morning for Dennis Foggia secures him a place in Q2 alongside Barry Baltus, Filip Salac and Aron Canet – the Spaniard celebrating his 24th birthday only 16th on the timesheets but safely inside the top four on the combined timesheets. 

That leaves an interesting proposition in Q1, including the likes of Bo Bendsneyder, who missed out by one hundredth of a second, Jake Dixon and Alonso Lopez – the duo resigned to Q1 after ending their session with tumbles at turns nine and one.  

Results:

Results:

Results:

Moto2 somehow managed to have a more eventful first race in India than their lightweight colleagues, including a tangle at the first corner, a red flag and the poleman in the gravel but thankfully also an impeccable win for Pedro Acosta, a great recovery from Tony Arbolino and a first podium of the season for Joe Roberts. 

Poleman Jake Dixon didn’t get to spend much time at the front, immediately challenged by Acosta, while quick progress from Arbolino helped him avoid the chaos at the first corner and the Italian was already attacking for the lead by turn five. However, before he could enjoy his time at the front, the red flag came out, to allow riders and machines to be cleared from the gravel at the first corner, where Jeremy Alcoba’s mistake took several men out of contention. The race was restarted as a 12-lap sprint but without Celestino Vietti and Taiga Hada – both unharmed but unable to rejoin. 

Dixon wasn’t any luckier at the second try, when Alonso Lopez attacked him into the first corner, sent him wide and allowed Sergio Garcia to claim the lead. Acosta quickly changed that to take control of proceedings at turn four, while Arbolino made another solid start and was also attacking Garcia by the end of the opening lap. Lopez and Dixon dropped behind Roberts after their clash, while Darryn Binder, Zonta van den Goorbergh, Barry Baltus and Marcos Ramirez completed the early top 10. Amongst the victims of the first lap were Aron Canet, Sam Lowes and Ai Ogura, who crashed out at turn four.

As soon as he found clear air, Acosta extended almost two seconds of advantage over the first couple of laps, with Arbolino leading the pursuit from Garcia and Roberts, but the group soon lost Lopez and Dixon after the duo tangled again in a race incident at turn four. Although Arbolino was not really closing the gap to his title rival, he did eventually ditch the battle for third one second behind, leaving Garcia and Roberts to sort it out between themselves. A couple of mistakes prevented the American from making a move until the final two laps, when he attacked the Spaniard at turn nine and Garcia tried to retaliate at the first corner but went wide and allowed Roberts back ahead. Garcia had another go at turn four and this time held onto it, but further exchanges followed at turns eight and nine, the score finally settled when Garcia went well wide at turn 12 and Roberts helped himself to third place.  

Acosta was long gone by that time, taking the chequered flag three and a half seconds ahead of Arbolino, with Roberts securing third three seconds later. Garcia equalled his best finish in fourth, while Manuel Gonzalez claimed fifth place from Zonta van den Goorbergh in the final few laps, although the Dutchman still took a personal best sixth place. Binder, Baltus, Ramirez and Filip Salac completed the top 10 positions. 

Although Arbolino limited the damage, Acosta extends his lead in the world championship to 39 points over the Italian, while Dixon’s misfortune leaves him 90 points back and seeing the title slip further away.

Results: 

The heat was still enveloping the Buddh circuit on Saturday morning, although the intermediate class welcomed some cloud cover, allowing for many early improvements on the timesheets. After Tony Arbolino stole the show on Friday, rival Pedro Acosta was quick to demote him in P3 but a late red flag prompted a four-minute shootout where Manuel Gonzalez improved the lap record by another tenth from Acosta. The Spaniard had to settle for second, with Celestino Vietti joining the top three on the final lap. 

Joe Roberts and Alonso Lopez completed a top five covered by only three tenths of a second, with even smaller margins separating the rest of the top 14 positions. Ai Ogura, Filip Salac and a surprising Dennis Foggia also posted times within half a second of the leader, while Sam Lowes and Marcos Ramirez completed the top 10. Jake Dixon’s day started with a tumble at turn eight, which limited his track time and saw him drop out of Q2 contention until reclaiming 11th place at the final try. 

Jeremy Alcoba and Somkiat Chantra also secured Q2 positions, while Arbolino was the only rider who failed to go any quicker in the final practice session but was safely inside the combined top 14. Zonta van den Goorbergh was unlucky to miss out by only two thousandths of a second, not helped by a late tumble, and will be joined in Q1 by Aron Canet, who also slid out on his final lap. 

Results:

Results:

Results:

The second show of the day at a resplendent Misano had none of the chaos of the lightweight class but did have a true masterclass that only Pedro Acosta seems to serve on a regular basis, the championship leader taking his fifth victory of the season in dominant fashion. Poleman Celestino Vietti tried to stop the onslaught but had already lost that fight by the opening corner and eventually had to settle for second place. Alonso Lopez made some early progress and then had a pretty lonely ride to his tenth podium in the class. 

Acosta was quick to take the lead from Vietti at the start of the 22-lap race, while Aron Canet and Lopez immediately demoted front row starter Manuel Gonzalez. Acosta ran a hot pace at the front, only Vietti and Canet keeping within reach after the first handful of laps, while Lopez and Gonzalez dropped one second behind. Acosta continued to push and soon distanced Vietti and Canet by eight tenths of a second but the duo weren’t keen to allow him much more than that and the gap yoyo-ed around that mark for a few laps. However, Vietti was left to manage it all on his own on lap eight, when Canet abandoned the fight at turn 14. Lopez inherited a provisional third place but had dropped over three seconds behind the leading duo and had the slight threat of Gonzalez around six tenths behind him. Having started ninth on the grid, Tony Arbolino made some early progress to join the top five, not too far off the podium battle and distancing Filip Salac and Sam Lowes. Somkiat Chantra, Ai Ogura and Joe Roberts completed the top 10 on lap 10, while Jake Dixon was struggling to progress from the 14th position he set off from. 

Back at the front, Acosta still kept Vietti at arm’s length at the halfway point of proceedings, although the Italian was steadily closing in. Not even a big scare at the first corner could halt Vietti’s progress, the gap down to three tenths with eight laps remaining but subsequent warnings at turn 14 and turn 4 persuaded the Italian to settle for second. There was no threat from behind, with a gap of six seconds keeping him ahead of Lopez. Meanwhile, Arbolino demoted Gonzalez and had seven laps left to recover one and a half seconds to the final podium position. That gap dropped to under a second with four laps remaining, as some mistakes were starting to creep in for the Spaniard. Teammate Lowes wasn’t as lucky, crashing out of sixth position at the first corner. 

Acosta’s unforgiving pace continued until the very end, the championship leader starting the final lap over four seconds ahead of Vietti, whose struggles continued but the Italian managed to hold onto second place at the chequered flag. Arbolino ran out of time to challenge Lopez and the Spaniard kept the final podium position. Ogura and teammate Chantra both got past a fading Gonzalez in the final few laps, the VR46 Master Camp rider setting for seventh place, with Joe Roberts, Salac and wildcard Mattia Pasini completing the top 10 places. Dixon finished in an underwhelming 12th place, behind Sergio Garcia. 

Acosta’s perfect Sunday helps him extend his advantage in the world championship standings to 34 points over Arbolino, with Dixon now a sizeable 65 points behind. 

Results: