Fermin Aldeguer cruised to a second career Moto2 win in commanding fashion as he defeated Pedro Acosta in the Thai Grand Prix, who edged closer to securing the title.
Pole-man Aldeguer enjoyed a good start to keep the lead off the line ahead of the series leader, and swiftly began to build up a lead in the early laps.
He soon pulled out over a second over Acosta to escape the slipstream range of the two long straights that make up the first sector of the Chang International Circuit, the Speed Up racer continually edging away from his pursuer.
Having built up a lead of over three seconds by the time the encounter hit two-thirds distance, Aldeguer suffered a small panic moment after running wide at the final bend, an error which cost him a second to Acosta.
He soon managed to regain his composure and started to pull away once again, the Spaniard eventually taking the chequered flag by 3.4 seconds over Acosta to secure his second career win after scoring victory at Silverstone earlier this year.
Acosta’s quiet run to second moved him a step closer to securing this year’s Moto2 rider’s title however, the Ajo KTM pilot extending his points advantage to 63 over Marc VDS’ Tony Arbolino with only 75 left to play for this season after the Italian could only manage fourth in Thailand.
Home hero Somkiat Chantra meanwhile secured a popular podium finish after coming home a solid third for Honda Team Asia.
Arbolino needed to finish at least 15th to keep his championship hopes alive with Acosta second, and despite struggling to stay within the top ten early on he was able to fight back through to fourth to keep his now remote chances going until Malaysia in two weeks time.
Ai Ogura meanwhile enjoyed a battling encounter to recover from 19th on the grid to complete the top five on the sister Honda Team Asia entry, the Japanese pilot getting the better of American Racing’s Marcos Ramirez in the closing stages. Sixth was still Ramirez’s best result of the year though.
Albert Arenas was seventh on his Ajo KTM machine ahead of the other Speed Up of Alonso Lopez, while GasGas’ Izan Guevara managed to steal ninth from Manuel Gonzalez on the final lap after the VR46 Master Camp rider made an error.
Aron Canet narrowly missed out on a top ten result in 11th after the Pons racer had to serve a double long-lap penalty for a jump start, the Spaniard aided by several riders crashing out in front of him.
Jake Dixon – Canet’s main rival for third in the championship – went down after running into the side of Celestino Vietti after out braking himself at Turn 2, the Brit high siding and retiring on the spot. The resulting loss of time put Vietti under pressure from Arbolino, and the Italian ran wide at Turn 5 and crashed out himself from sixth.
Joe Roberts lost out on the opportunity of a top ten after crashing his Italtrans-prepared bike after just a few laps, while Sergio Garcia also went down from tenth at Turn 5 approaching mid-distance.
Keyword: Aldeguer beats Acosta to Thai Moto2 success