Moto2 Austin FP1: Ai Ogura inaugurates

Before Austin, at the Argentine GP, Celestino Vietti took his second Moto2 victory with the opening race in Qatar, becoming the ninth different Italian rider to have more than one victory in the category. In addition, this is Italy's 48th victory in this category. Spain leads with 79 Moto2 victories.

After winning his first victory and his first podium in Indonesia, Somkiat Chantra finished second for his second Moto2 podium. Ai Ogura finished third at Termas de Rio Hondo for his second Moto2 podium with Austria last year where he was second. He is now tied with Shoya Tomizawa and Tetsuta Nagashima for third place on the list of Japanese drivers with the most podiums in the category behind Takaaki Nakagami (14 podiums) and Yuki Takahashi (4).

With Aron canet in fourth position, Celestine Vietti is now the only rider to be on the podium in the first three Moto2 races. Jake dixon finished fifth in the Argentine GP for his second top 5 in Moto2 with the 2020 Aragon GP where he was fourth, his best result so far in Moto2.

Augusto Fernandez crashed on the first lap at Termas de Rio Hondo, ending a streak of 15 successive Moto2 races in the points, dating back to the Dutch TT last year. The eight Moto2 races contested at the Circuit of the Americas were won by eight riders, five of whom are now competing in MotoGP: Nico Terol (2013), Maverick Viñales (2014), Sam Lowes (2015), Alex Rins (2016), Franco Morbidelli ( 2017), Francesco Bagnaia (2018), Tom Lüthi (2019) and Raul Fernandez (2021). Among them, only Alex Rins, Franco Morbidelli and Raul Fernandez won after qualifying on pole.

But it's Fermin Aldeguer who will capture the attention of this round after his sparkling overall performance at the last Argentine Grand Prix, at only a little over 16 years old... What will this FP1 have in store for us, which opens a Grand Prix of the Americas with this category rather than with Moto3? Before answering this question, here is the table which summarizes the facts known so far.

Moto2™ Austin, Texas, USA	2021	2022
FP1	2'13.589 Raul Fernández	2'10.407 Ai Ogura
FP2	2'09.880 Raúl Fernández
FP3	2'09.258 Raúl Fernández
Q1	2'09.652 Marcos Ramírez
Q2	2'08.979 Raúl Fernández
Warm up	2'09.577 Raúl Fernández
Course	R. Fernández, Di Giannantonio, Bezzecchi
All time lap record	2'08.850 Alex Rins 2016

The weather is nice but only 13° in the air and a track at 19° which we are impatiently waiting to see what its condition will be after the controversies over its bumps in 2021.

The first reference goes to Tony Arbolino in 2'14.516. There are two Americans who will want to satisfy their audience either Joe Roberts et Cameron Beaubier. But for the moment, it's the Italian from Marc VDS Racing who sets the pace in 2'12.510 after ten minutes of racing. Barry Baltus fall…

Augusto Fernandez, Schrotter Acosta et Canet close the first top 5. Aldeguer is ninth. Jake Dixon fall mid-session. He was eighth. Beaubier settles second on his land. But Augusto Fernandez goes in front with a reference 2'11.048.

The locals made the effort as the last quarter of an hour began. Beaubier is sixth and Joe Roberts eighth.

The last five minutes have begun. Aldeguer is 16th and the championship leader Drive 19th in a ranking led by Augusto Fernandez.

Augusto Fernandez falling one minute from the checkered flag at turn 16. He was improving on his best time. The latter ultimately comes down to Ai Ogura in 2'10.407 ahead Augusto Fernandez, local Beaubier, Arbolino et Canet. Aldeguer is 16th ahead of the championship leader Drive. Acosta is 14th.

Results of FP1 of the Moto2 Grand Prix of the Americas at the Circuit of the Americas in Austin:

Classification credit: MotoGP.com