Ais mistake comes back to haunt him

November 9, 2022

Moto2 – Gran Premio Motul de la Comunitat Valenciana

Qualifying:

Alonso Lopez has been on form recently and Valencia was no exception as he put the Boscoscuro in pole position. P2 was the now back on form Pedro Acosta, and P3 was Augusto Fernandez, battling with Ai Ogura for the championship who was P5. It was all set for the showdown.

The Race:

It was an explosive start with the title contenders in the mix, but as lap one came to a close, it was Alonso Lopez in the lead with Pedro Acosta P2 and Tony Arbolino P3. Ai Ogura was P4 with Augusto Fernandez right on his tail in P5. The action was fully underway on lap two when Pedro Acosta overtook Alonso Lopez, but in the next corner Lopez stood the bike up and they clashed, leaving them in P3 and P4, whilst Ai Ogura was P2 with Tony Arbolino in the lead, Fernandez P5.

With 22 laps to go Tony Arbolino was holding the lead, with Ogura P2, Pedro Acosta P3 and Alonso Lopez P4, when Alonso, who had been battling with Acosta made a mistake and ended up in the gravel, race over for him. P4 was then taken by Augusto Fernandez, as he settled on how to take the title. On lap 8 Ai Ogura and Pedro Acosta were involved in a scrap, with each rider taking the P2 position on every other corner, this was dangerous ground for Ogura, as Fernandez watched and waited in P4.

With eighteen laps to go, Ai Ogura crashed out at 130mph, the race and dream of becoming world champion, gone, for the time being! Augusto Fernandez was in P3 at this time, but now he did not even have to finish the race, it was Ai who had lost the title, and Augusto had taken the crown. In the race Tony Arbolino was still in the lead, being chased down by Pedro Acosta.

Fourteen laps to go and Pedro Acosta took Arbolino for the lead, with Fernandez in P3, but it seemed he had unfinished business as he started to chase down Acosta, it’s always good to win the title and take the race win at the same time, and this seemed to be his intention, as he went after his teammate. With nine laps to go Ogura’s teammate, Somkiat Chantra had an almost identical crash to Ai, on the same turn seven, a strange occurrence and a disappointing end to the season for the Idemitsu Team Asia squad.

As the race concluded it was Acosta for the win with Fernandez P2 and Tony Arbolino P3. Pedro had stolen a bit of thunder from Augusto with his win, but Augusto is now the 2022 Moto2 world champion, and that’s the big prize.