Somkiat Chantra celebrates his second Moto2 victory in Japan – Ai Ogura completes double win for Honda Team-Asia – Pedro Acosta increases World Championship lead
Double success for Honda Team-Asia at the Grand Prix of Japan in the Moto2 class. Thailand’s Somkiat Chantra took a commanding second win of his career at Motegi. His teammate and local hero Ai Ogura followed in second place. Pedro Acosta increased his World Championship lead with third place.
Chantra dominated the weekend. He was fastest in all the practice sessions and led all the laps in the race. “The whole weekend went like clockwork for me. It was just an incredible week for me. I am so happy!” It was his second win after Indonesia last year.
At the start of the 19-lap race, Chantra took the lead from pole position. Behind him, Jake Dixon, Alonso Lopez, Ogura, Sam Lowes and Filip Salac sorted themselves out. Acosta had a turbulent first lap and came back seventh.
On lap two, Acosta grabbed sixth place from Salac. Up front, Lopez, Ogura and Dixon were battling with each other, with Chantra’s lead at the front quickly growing to just under a second.
Acosta found his rhythm and overtook Lowes and Dixon. By lap four, the world championship leader was thus fourth. Lopez took his first of two long lap penalties (accident with Dixon in India) on lap five. After the second, the Spaniard was only tenth.
LIGHTS OUT IN Moto2!
Some early drama for @37_pedroacosta as @somkiat35 leads from pole! JapaneseGP pic.twitter.com/emlr4BYI1p
– MotoGP™ (@MotoGP) October 1, 2023
The field had sorted itself out. After six laps, Chantra led by two seconds from his teammate Ogura. Acosta was third, but also half a second behind the Japanese rider in front of him.
The positions in the leading field were taken. But eight laps before the end of the race, Chantra’s lead over Ogura shrank to one and a half seconds. This gap remained stable afterwards. Acosta was one and a half seconds behind Ogura in third, with Dixon following a second behind Acosta.
Nothing changed in the closing stages. “The race was tough,” commented Ogura, who was cheered on by thousands of Japanese. “We were both very fast all weekend, but he was still a tad faster. “
Moto2 RACE @somkiat35 utterly DOMINATES at Motegi! JapaneseGP pic.twitter.com/SaFmCRnppO
– MotoGP™ (@MotoGP) October 1, 2023
“In the early stages I wasn’t able to push and lost a bit of time when I was overtaken by a couple of other riders. Still, it turned out to be another podium finish. I am happy about that. Second place at my home Grand Prix, that’s good. “
Tony Arbolino not in the leading group
A race to forget was experienced by Tony Arbolino. The Italian finished eleventh. This increased his deficit to Acosta to 50 World Championship points (World Championship standings). Nevertheless, even world championship favourite Acosta speaks of “not an easy” race.
“At the beginning I made a mistake in turn 1. Afterwards I wanted to push, but I had a few problems with the grip,” Acosta describes. “The guys from the Asia team really had a strong pace. Today was the maximum for us. “
The battle for 11th is still very much alive! ⚔️
And @TonyArbolino nails it on @AlonsoLopez_21 JapaneseGP pic. twitter.com/ZXGq1Dq2aJ
– MotoGP™ (@MotoGP) October 1, 2023
Behind Acosta, Dixon finished fourth. The other positions went to Salac, Manuel Gonzalez, Marcos Ramirez, Aron Canet and Zonta van den Goorbergh. Darryn Binder took tenth place for the IntactGP team.
Several riders were eliminated due to crashes. These were Lowes, Kohta Nozane, Dennis Foggia and Sergio Garcia. Fermin Aldeguer and Joe Roberts lost a lot of ground by riding into the gravel.
