Moto2 Aragon – Race: Jake Dixon triumphs, Sergio Garcia adrift

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	1'51.657 Alonso Lopez
P1	1'52.852 Arón Canet	1'50.989 Alonso Lopez
P2	1'52.180 Alonso Lopez
Q1	1'52.480 Cameron Beaubier	1'52.603
Q2	1'51.888 Augusto Fernández	1'51.636 Jake Dixon
Course	Acosta, Canet, A. Fernandez (See here)
All time lap record	1'51.296 Sam Lowes 2020

Starting from the front row for the first time, Diogo Moreira managed to put pressure on Jake Dixon at the start, but it was the Briton who took the lead through the first corner.

As the #96 completes the first lap in the lead, Arón Canet loses control before reaching this point. His race ends in the gravel trap. Fermin Aldeguer had an excellent first lap, managing to promote himself from eleventh to fourth position. He will quickly get rid of Moreira and Arbolino to get back in touch with the leader.

His competitors, however, have not said their last word. A six-way battle for the top spots ensues, to which Deniz Öncü and Alonso López are invited.

At the start of the third lap, Tony Arbolino is full of confidence, he takes advantage of it to try a daring maneuver on Jake Dixon, and passes him. The n°96 will return the favor at the same corner at the start of the sixth lap of the race.

Two laps later, the worst happened for Fermin Aldeguer. In a burst of haste, the future Gresini rider tried to overtake Deniz Öncü but hit him. The consequences of this approximation were immediate, since the latter fell and said goodbye to his hopes of a good result.

As the halfway point approaches, a duel for victory is taking shape between Dixon and Arbolino. Alonso Lopez is now third, more than a second behind the leading duo. However, the degradation of the tires is starting to change the grip conditions, and a turnaround is not to be ruled out.

Dixon and Arbolino are on another planet at the end of the race, and remain the only ones to lap in 1:52. The more the tires wear out, the more the Briton begins to take on his opponent. With three laps to go, Dixon sets the fastest lap in the race, and slightly widens the gap with his opponent of the day. He then has a margin of error of seven tenths.

Tony Arbolino can't fight back and lets the victory slip away. Jake Dixon comes out on top and takes his fourth intermediate class victory.

Deniz Öncü gets rid of Alonso López just before the end of the race and completes the podium.

Joe Roberts was fifth before the end of the race, and was doing an excellent job in the championship. However, the American was given a Long Lap, and fell down the hierarchy. Seventh at the start of the last lap, the American fell in pursuit of his teammate, and sadly ended his Moto2 Aragon GP.

Championship leader Sergio Garcia had a bad race. Starting from the back of the grid, the Spaniard was unable to make up the deficit on the pack. With 10 of the 19 laps to go, he was given a Long Lap for not respecting track limits, and gave up his hopes of points by retiring from the race. Ahead of him, his teammate and main rival in the championship was moving up the hierarchy, and got away from his competitors to claim 12th place with seven laps to go.

Ai Ogura continued his momentum to approach the last lap in ninth place. He took eighth place after Roberts' fall.

Barry Baltus had an excellent start to the race, managing to climb up to sixteenth position, just outside the points. Ayumu Sasaki then separated him from a successful weekend. Despite a few approximations, the Belgian remained in contact with the group that was fighting for the last places for the points. Author of an excellent end to the race, the number 7 successively got rid of Diogo Moreira and Senna Agius, to finish the race in thirteenth position in the Moto2 Aragon GP.

2 Moto2 Aragon Grand Prix Q2024 Result:

Classification credit: MotoGP.com