Moto2 Indonesia Race: Somkiat Chantra crushes Mandalika!

Briton Jake Dixon (GasGas, GasGas Aspar Team, #96) will start from pole position for the Indonesian Moto2 Grand Prix, the second round of the 2022 season. Jorge Martinez's rider, for his first start at the helm of the category intermediate, set the best time with a time of 1'35.799.

Augusto Fernandez (Kalex, Red Bull KTM Ajo, #37) and his compatriot Sam Lowes (Kalex, ELF Marc VDS Racing Team, #22) will also start from a front row that is at least 3 tenths faster than the rest of the field. The Thai Somkiat Chantra (Kalex, Idemitsu Honda Team Asia, #35), introduces a second row where we find the Dutchman Will Bendsneyder (Kalex, Pertamina Mandalika SAG Team, #64) and the Spaniard Albert Arenas (GasGas, GasGas Aspar Team, #75) already almost 8 tenths behind the poleman.

The winner of the Qatar Grand Prix, Celestino Vietti (Kalex, Mooney VR46 Racing Team, #13) is seventh and will share the third row with his compatriots Tony Arbolino (Kalex, ELF Marc VDS Racing Team, #14) and Simone Courses (MV Agusta, MV Agusta Forward Racing, #24). The rookie and reigning Moto3 champion Pedro Acosta (Kalex, Red Bull KTM Ajo, #51), last rider qualified in the same second as the pole-sitter, set the tenth time ahead of the American Cameron Beaubier (Kalex, American Racing, #6) and the Spaniard Fermin Aldeguer (Boscoscuro, Speed ​​Up Racing, #54).

We will recall that the qualifications were characterized by numerous falls, four in Q1 (KELLY Sean Dylan (USA) – ZACCONE Alessandro (ITA) – RODRIGO Gabriel (ARG) – BALTUS Barry (BEL)) and five in Q2 (NAVARRO Jorge (SPA) – BEAUBIER Cameron (USA) – ARENAS Albert (SPA) – RAMIREZ Marcos (SPA) – ACOSTA Pedro (SPA) ).

Peter Acosta, the KTM rookie, will also have to serve a “long lap” penalty for having crashed during FP2 while the yellow flags were being waved.

A strange decision falls just before the start: the race is reduced to 16 laps instead of the 25 planned! Or 2/3 to keep all the points awarded.
It is assumed that this is to preserve Indonesian bitumen…

It's 30° in the air, 46° on the ground but the sky is gradually clouding over...

The drivers unanimously chose their tires:

Here is the table which summarizes the facts known so far:

Moto2™ Indonesia	2022
FP1	1'44.439 Sam Lowes
FP2	1'35.897 Jake dixon
FP3	1'47.835 Fermin Aldeguer
Q1	1'36.464 Somkiat Chantra
Q2	1'35.799 Jake Dixon
Warm up	1'36.013 Celestine Vietti
Course	Chantra, Vietti, Canet
All time lap record	1'35.799 Jake dixon

When the red lights go out... Augusto Fernández gets the best start but Jake Dixon retains the advantage of his pole position, at least until the first where Somkiat Chantra takes the advantage.

At the end of the first lap, the Thai driver leads Sam Lowes, Jake Dixon, Arón Canet, Albert Arenas, Simone Corsi, Celestino Vietti, Pedro Acosta, Augusto Fernández and Tony Arbolino. The gaps are already significant and a few drops of water are starting to fall on the track.

Somkiat Chantra has a half-second lead over the peloton and Pedro Acosta executes his Long Lap on the third lap. Celestine Vietti achieves the best lap in the race but the driver of the VR 46 is already more than two seconds behind the leader.

In the fifth round, Jake dixon takes advantage of his compatriot Sam Lowes but fell shortly after at turn 10 without seriousness.

Simone Courses also makes a mistake right away.

On your mind, Somkiat Chantra escapes with 1,6 seconds ahead of Aron canet.

Celestine Vietti takes the advantage over the latter but the gap has already increased to more than two seconds…

With 7 laps to go, the positions now seem stabilized with Somkiat Chantra having a lead of 2,6 seconds over the duo Celestino Vietti – Arón Canet, 5 on Sam Lowes and 10 on the peloton led by Fermín Aldeguer.

Meanwhile, Peter Acosta fights with Albert Arenas for 9th position.

As is often the case in Moto2, the race then takes place without any major final changes until the finish… and Somkiat Chantra, who does not slow down, flies to his first victory in the World Championship, congratulated by his teammate Ai Ogura.

Celestine Vietti remains leader of the championship.

Results of the Indonesian Moto2 Grand Prix at the Mandalika circuit:

Classification credit: MotoGP.com