Moto2 Aragon FP: Lopez wins his duel against Arbolino

Moto2 returns to Aragon for the twelfth round of its 2024 season. While the venue has not hosted the World Championship since 2022, some teams have gotten a head start this month, by conducting a series of tests at the Spanish venue. However, not all of them have done so. It remains to be seen whether this disadvantage will be noticeable. Three riders arrive at Aragon with the confidence of having secured their futures for next year. While Jake Dixon will contest the 2025 season under the colours of Marc VDS Racing, Fermin Aldeguer and Somkiat Chantra have each sealed an agreement with a structure that will allow their promotion to MotoGP.

Moto2™ Spain, Aragon	2022	2024
FP	1'52.925 Augusto Fernández
P1	1'52.852 Arón Canet
P2	1'52.180 Alonso Lopez
Q1	1'52.480 Cameron Beaubier
Q2	1'51.888 Augusto Fernández
Course	Acosta, Canet, A. Fernandez (See here)
All time lap record	1'51.296 Sam Lowes 2020

Result of the Free Practice of the Moto2 Aragon Grand Prix 2024:

As some discover the new asphalt covering the track, Ai Ogura enters the scene to complete his first laps since the injury that forced him to withdraw from the Austrian Grand Prix before even competing in the Qualifying session.

Anonymous since the start of the season, Fermin Aldeguer seems to have found what he was missing. If this was not the case at Silverstone and the Red Bull Ring, the Spaniard started the FP of the Aragon GP in a positive way, by setting the best provisional time during the first attempts.

Jake Dixon will however come to mark his territory quickly, with the first time under the minute 53 (1:52.865). Mark that he will be able to knock down even more later, by winning a time of 1:52.525.

Determined to restore his reputation after a string of poor performances, Aldeguer returned to the charge. The No. 54 took the lead with a time three tenths faster than Dixon's. Deniz Öncü then completed the top three, just under three tenths behind the leader.

The final sprint begins, and the times start to fall. The reference mark will remain in place until 5 minutes from the finish. It will be overturned for the first time by Deniz Öncü, who came to give the top in 1:52.246.

The final duel will however be played out between Tony Arbolino and Alonso Lopez. A confrontation in which the Spaniard emerges victorious before the checkered flag thanks to a time of 1:51.657. Tony Arbolino and Manuel Gonzalez complete the top-3 of this first session of the weekend in Aragon.

Joe Roberts and Fermin Aldeguer are finally back at the front at the start of the weekend, and complete this session in fifth and sixth positions. Jake Dixon does not follow the pace at the end of the session, and falls to tenth place.

A complicated return from injury for Ai Ogura, who was only sixteenth at the end of the session. His garage neighbour and championship leader, however, did not shine either, as he was ranked 26th after the 16 laps he completed this Friday morning.