While he arrived in Australia with a sixty-point lead over his closest pursuer in the championship, Ai Ogura had a first match point for the Moto2 title. However, the Japanese had to measure himself against eight opponents, who could still mathematically be crowned. At the end of the weekend at Phillip Island, the number 73 eliminated six of these targets, and will have a serious opportunity to wrap up the championship in Thailand.
Celestino Vietti and Joe Roberts were the first riders to be eliminated from the title race this weekend. While they were among the field of riders who were still capable of challenging for the world crown at Ai Ogura, despite the low probability of that happening, the Italian fractured his collarbone during practice on Friday, ending his chances of scoring points. The same happened to the American the following day, following a fracture in his right hand.
In the race, the Japanese never threatened to fight at the front, but he knew that it was important to collect big points so that the situation would settle down at the end of the weekend. While he was helped by the falls of Jake Dixon and Alonso Lopez, it remained for the latter to put a few points in the sight of the opponents who were within his reach to eliminate them.
He thus managed to stay ahead of Manuel Gonzalez, sixth in the event, to eliminate the latter from the title race. While he started the weekend with a sixty-point lead over Sergio Garcia, the latter finished the Grand Prix in ninth position, and saw the gap grow to sixty-six points.
Ahead of him, Ogura was nevertheless unable to do anything against Aron Canet and Fermin Aldeguer who, thanks to this good result, have respectively gained two and four places in the championship. While the number 44 is now sixty-five lengths behind Ai Ogura in the Drivers' standings, Aldeguer is, like Garcia, sixty-six points behind the leader.
With 75 points left to be distributed in this championship, the last three mentioned remain the only ones who still have a mathematical chance of winning the title. The situation is complicated, however, since they will have to finish the next race in Thailand with less than fifty points behind, to keep their chances after this deadline.
For his part, Ai Ogura has shown almost flawless consistency that is about to pay off. Over the last five races, the Japanese rider has won a total of three podiums. When he wasn't on the box, the MT Helmets msi rider failed to reach fourth place.
The Moto2 Riders standings after the Australian GP:
