Second in a row! Augusto Fernández gained positions to take the lead and win the Moto2 Dutch GP
The Moto2 Dutch GP was full of position changes. Jake Dixon, the pole-position, started well, but it was almost impossible to hold off the threat from behind. Augusto Fernández did better. He was gaining positions to take the lead and never let go. It was the third victory for the Spaniard on the Red Bull KTM Ajo in 2022.
Ai Ogura finished second. Dixon lost some places, but was able to recover to finish third on the podium. Celestino Vietti and Bo Bendsneyder finished fourth and fifth, respectively.
Completing the top-10 are Alonso López, Tony Arbolino, Joe Roberts, Manuel González, and Filip Salac.
With the result, Vietti keeps his World Championship lead with 146 points, but is now tied with Fernández. Ogura dropped to third in the table, but with a single point less. Arón Canet, who did not race due to a persistent nosebleed - the result of a car accident on the eve of the German GP - is fourth in the Drivers' World Championship, followed by Tony Arbolino, Joe Roberts, Marcel Schrötter, and Dixon. Absent because of a fractured femur, Pedro Acosta is ninth, with Somkiat Chantra rounding out the top ten.
Moto2 is now on vacation and will be back in action on August 7th for the British GP at Silverstone.GRANDE PRÊMIO is following all the activities of the 2022 Moto2 World Championship.
Find out how the Moto2 Dutch GP went:
Despite the rather cloudy skies, Moto2 found a dry track for this Sunday's race. The temperature was 22°C, with the track reaching 30°C. The relative humidity was at 60%, with the wind speed blowing at 11 km/h.
In terms of tire choice, a uniform choice: all drivers put hard tires at the front and soft tires at the back.
At the start, Jake Dixon made a great start and held the lead, ahead of Albert Arenas. In the first few meters, however, Alonso López took over second place and immediately attacked to take the lead from the Aspar Briton, taking advantage of Stekkenwal, turn 8, to dive down the inside.
Once in the lead, Lopez was soon able to open up an advantage, pulling away 0s4s from Dixon in just half a lap. Arenas was close behind his Aspar teammate and followed by Marcel Schrötter, Augusto Fernández, Jorge Navarro, Bo Bendsneyder, Joe Roberts, Tony Arbolino, and Ai Ogura. Celestino Vietti was only 13th.
Ogura had a real scare at turn 11, the Duikersloot, and came close to crashing, but acted quickly to avoid the tumble and stay in the race.
Still early in the race, Sam Lowes crashed and abandoned the race. The Marc VDS starter, however, was not seriously injured.
Dixon was unable to hold on to second place. The Briton was overtaken by Schrötter, who then led the chase for Lopez. With the IntactGP rider in second, Alonso's lead began to fall. On lap 7, the two were separated by 0s290.
Dixon's day got a little worse shortly after as Arenas also passed his teammate, taking advantage of the Geert Timmer Bocht chicane pass to take third place.
Soon after, Schrötter took the lead from López at turn 7 and immediately opened the advantage, taking advantage of the good pace he had been showing in Assen. Further back, Augusto Fernández also passed Dixon, who dropped to fifth.
On lap 10. Arenas and Fernández passed López in De Strubben, who managed to react and pass Augusto, but was almost immediately overtaken by the Spaniard again.
With 13 laps to go, a setback: Marcel Schrötter crashed on De Strubben. The 29-year-old rider made a mistake when fighting for the first victory of his career, but escaped injury.
Albert Arenas took the race lead, 0s3 ahead of López. Fernández was third, ahead of DIxon, Bendsneyder, Arbolino, Cameron Beaubier, Vietti, and Ogura.
Lopez made a mistake shortly after and dropped to sixth, more than a quarter of a second behind the leader.
With eight laps to go it was Arenas' turn to lose the lead. Fernandez passed Albert at De Strubben and took the lead, with Bendsneyder fending off an attack from Dixon at the same point. Beaubier was next, followed by Ogura.
At the opening of the next lap, Camerou jumped up to third, using the vacuum on the straight to double back. Later, however, Jake managed to regain third place.
With five laps to go, Vietti also appeared among the leaders. The VR46 driver passed Bendsneyder to take sixth place, while Ogura passed Beaubier to move into fourth.
At the top, Fernández had Arenas close behind. Albert, however, was under pressure from the pack and fell behind Dixon and Ogura. Cameron, on the other hand, crashed and abandoned the race in the final stretch.
With only four laps to go, Fernández's lead was less than 0.02 seconds, with Dixon now leading the chase. At the opening of the next lap, Ogura passed Jake for second place, with Augusto taking the margin at the top by a further 0s5s.
With an eye on the World Championship lead, Fernandez began to push the pace, breaking more and more of the pack. After another scare from Ogura, the third of this Dutch GP, the Spaniard of the Red Bull KTM Ajo started to show more than 0s6 of lead.
It was at this point in the race that Arenas also crashed out, with a sector 3 crash at turn 9. Niccolò Antonelli also didn't stay on track for the flag and crashed in turn 5.
On the final lap, Vietti was also coming with a strong pace, trying to look for Dixon for the last podium spot. The Italian, however, was 0s3 behind in the final meters of Assen.