Malaysian Moto2: Victory for Arbolino as Ogura crashes out
Tony Abrolino made a strong start from second and withsttod contsnt pressure from Ai Ogura to take his third win of the season in the Moto2 Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang, round ninteen of the championship.
The Elf Marc VDS rider had lead from lights out after his superb start, but had Ogura stalking around behind.
The Idemitsu rider made his move with six laps remaining and looked strong out front, attempting to pull out a gap on his Italian rival.
The #79, who started from pole, made that move stick but an error saw Arbolino able to move back in front.
Lesson learnt, the Italian did not look back and took charge of the race over the closing laps.
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Ogura worked hard to find another shot at the win, instead of sitting on the twenty points for the championship.
An over-ambitious move on the final lap saw him in front for the briefest of moments, but out wide on the still damp track, his return to the lead lasted seconds as he crashed out at turn nine on the final lap.
It is just Ogura’s second time out of the points this season, with his only other DNF coming in the Portuguese round which saw a huge amount of falls in the trying conditions.
Until that moment, in terms of all-out action their game of cat and mouse faded behind Jake Dixon and title hopeful Augusto Fernandez as they battled their way around the track.
They were behind the then battle for the final podium spot, with rookies Manuel Gonzalez (Yamaha VR46 Master Camp) and Alonso Lopez (Beta Tools Speed UP) vying for the position.
Lopez went on to take second, a huge 11.411s behind Arbolino, but Gonzalez faded back into the clutches of the Dixon/Fernandez fight.
The four had been together on track before the in-fighting split them into two duos. There had been contact more than once as the Red Bull KTM rider battled with Dixon.
Now ahead the Inde GasGas Aspar rider used his overtake of Gonzalez to pull out a lead over the #37, and then took chunks out of Lopez to finish right behind him over the line for the final podium spot.
The British rider was exhausted in parc ferme from his efforts, with friend Fabio Quartararo quick to congratulate him.
Fernandez also found a way past Gonzalez for fourth, leaving his compatriot fifth.
Marcel Schrotter was the best of the rest in a distant sixth for Liqui Moly IntactGP.
Cameron Beaubier was a distant seventh for American Racing.
Canet stages comeback for eighth.
A very unlucky Aron Canet was caught up in the first lap crash, which saw Ogura’s Idemitsu Honda Team Asia team-mate Somkiat Chantra collect Pedro Acosta with Canet and Alessandro Zaccone caught up in the aftermath.
That dropped the Flexbox HP40 rider from the lead pack to 16th on lap one. The Spaniard had made it up to eleventh by lap three and kept progressing as much as possible in a gapped field to finish a determined eighth at the chequered flag.
Jeremy Alcoba (Liqui Moly IntactGP) and Fermin Aldeguer (Beta Tools Speed Up) kept him company but did not overtake so took the chequered flag in ninth and tenth respectively.
The gaps on track meant few changes in the rest of the points positions.
Filip Salac was a distant eleventh for Gresini, in turn clear of Italtrans rider Lorenzo Dalla Porta who was twelfth.
Albert Arenas (Inde GasGas Aspar) won his battle with Bo Bendsneyder (Pertamina Mandalika SAG Team) for 13th.
The final point went to the Netherlands rider's team-mate Taiga Hada, just his second points finish and second in a row after 13th at the last round.
Where does that leave the championship?
It is advantage Fernandez after Ogura’s spill. The Spanish rider moves back into the overall lead with his fourth place finish, now with a total of 251.5. Ogura didn’t gain a single point after having 20 in his grasp, still on 242, which is now 9.5 points behind Fernandez with one race remaining.
Alonso Lopez takes over as top rookie. The Spaniard is seventh overall and takes over from Pedro Acosta after his two crashes, with a total of 155.5 to his fellow countryman’s 152.
Crashes and penalties
David Sanchis (replacing Simone Corsi at MV Agusta Forward Racing was also involved in the first lap multi-crash so did not make it past the first lap. All the other debut riders finished the race with Kasma Daniel 19th (Petronas MIE Racing RW), Borja Gomez 20th (replacing Jorge Naravrro at Flexbox HP40) and Azroy Anuar the last of the 22 finishers on the second Petronas bike, in for Zonta Van Den Goorbergh.
Zaccone failed to finish, like Acosta after being caugth up in the lap one accident. Joe Roberts retired to the pits with a bike issue. Celestino Vietti saw his season continue to slide away, just like his bike at turn 15 on lap seven.
