Moto2 Qatar Race: Celestino Vietti makes Valentino Rossi win and peace!

Already author of the best time in FP3 of the Qatar Moto2 Grand Prix riding his Kalex from the Elf Marc VDS Racing team, Sam Lowes reissued during qualification. Unfortunately for him, the Briton had achieved his best lap by putting a wheel on the green part outside the track and was therefore downgraded in favor of Celestine Vietti (Kalex, Mooney VR46 Racing Team, #13) who thus obtained his first pole position in Moto2, his second in his career after that acquired in Moto3 in 2019 in Thailand and his second consecutive front row since he was second at the Valencia GP l 'last year.

Faced with the one who is starting his second season in the intermediate category, the statistics of Sam Lowes are overwhelming, being for example not only the only rider on the field to have already won in Moto2 in Qatar, but having already done so twice in 2021: in the event of victory, the native of Lincoln could downright become the only driver to win three successive victories on the same circuit in Moto2.

But for this, the one who starts from 3rd position on the grid will not only have to overtake his new teammate, Tony Arbolino, qualified one tenth behind the young poleman for his first start on the front row in Moto2, but also defended himself against the really very competitive trio who qualified on the second row grouped in one tenth of a second: Filip Salač (Kalex, Gresini Racing Moto2, #12), Ai Ogura (Kalex, Idemitsu Honda Team Asia, #79) and Augusto Fernandez (Kalex, Red Bull KTM Ajo, #37), not even to mention Jake dixon (GasGas, GasGas Aspar Team, #96) and Fermín Aldeguer (Boscoscuro, Speed ​​Up Racing, #54) positioned two hundredths of a second behind…

At this level of competitiveness, 10th place on the prodigy's grid Peter Acosta (Kalex, Red Bull KTM Ajo, #51) could almost appear disappointing, if it were not partially explained by his two falls and if it was not his first race in the intermediate category. The “tiburon (shark) of Manzaron” will leave behind Aron Canet (Kalex, Flexbox HP40, #40) and in front Cameron Beaubier (Kalex, American Racing, #6).

But qualifying is one thing and the race is another. This takes place over 20 laps of the Losail circuit, renamed this year Lusail, with temperatures of 26° in the air and 35° on the ground.

The choice of tires:

Qatar Moto2™	2021	2022
FP1	1'59.931 Fabio Di Giannantonio	2'00.290 Augusto Fernández
FP2	1'58.541 Raúl Fernández	1'59.112 Augusto Fernández
FP3	2.00.878 Sam Lowes	1'59.594 Sam Lowes
Q1	1.59.592 Jorge Navarro	1'59.371 Albert Arenas
Q2	1'59.055 Sam Lowes	1'59.082 Celestino Vietti
Warm up	1'59.821 Marco Bezzecchi	1'59.711 Augusto Fernández
Course	Lowes, Gardner, Fernández	Vietti, Canet, Lowes
All time lap record	1'58.136 Joe Roberts (2020)

 

When the red lights go out... Celestino Vietti makes the holeshot in front Tony Arbolino et Augusto Fernandez.

The first round took place without incident but Sam Lowes fell to eighth position. Worse, Peter Acosta is 26th after having a tangle with Fermín Aldeguer !

Conversely, Aron Canet moved up from 9th to 3rd then 2nd place…

At the end of the second round, Celestine Vietti is almost a second ahead of Arón Canet, at the moment when Filip Salač makes a mistake at turn #5. The Valentino Rossi driver manages to maintain this gap with a peloton made up of Arón Canet, Tony Arbolino, Augusto Fernández, Ai Ogura, Sam Lowes, Cameron Beaubier, Joe Roberts and Jorge Navarro.

Aron Canet manages to break away from the group and rolls alone, 1,1 seconds behind Celestine Vietti while Ai Ogura takes third position.

Sam Lowes begins his comeback and is in 6th position with 13 laps to go.

At the halfway mark, Celestine Vietti is 1,6 seconds ahead Aron canet, himself having an advantage of 3,4 seconds over the group Ogura – Fernández – Lowes – Arbolino.

One turn later, Sam Lowes leads the quartet, but the gap with Aron Canet already stands at 4,9 seconds…

If at the top things seem to have stabilized, the fight is very real for the third step of the podium and, in this regard, Ai Ogura regains the advantage six laps from the checkered flag.

While Celestine Vietti safely takes his Kalex adorned with the words “PEACE” to the finish line, followed at 4 seconds by Arón Canet, uncertainty still reigns for the bronze medal: Augusto Fernandez is first inserted between Ai Ogura et Sam Lowes, then attempts an attack on the Japanese in the last lap. He passes but the Idemitsu Honda Asia team rider tries to respond and the two men touch each other.

Fortunately and miraculously, no one falls... but Sam Lowes take advantage of this to get on the podium!

First podium and first victory in Moto2 for the young 20-year-old Italian from the Mooney VR46 Racing Team, who today looked like an old hand!

Behind, the rookie Peter Acosta finally moved up to 12th position, a result obviously far from satisfying him.

 

Results of the Qatar Moto2 Grand Prix at the Losail/Lusail circuit:

Classification credit: MotoGP.com