Fermin Aldeguer battled back from a tough opening few laps to secure a third-successive Moto2 win in Qatar to close further in on a championship podium place.
Aldeguer made a good start to move into third from fourth on the grid off the start, though his task for his fourth win of the year was made harder after he ran wide on entry to Turn 1 soon after.
With his mistake dropping him back to ninth, the Speed Up rider was forced to carve back through the pack to reach the lead. He quickly obliged as he reached the podium positions just before mid-distance, before swiftly passing Jake Dixon for the runners-up spot.
He then took just a further lap to run down and pass Aron Canet for the leadership, the Spaniard immediately turning up the wick as he hit the front.
He relentlessly pulled clear of his rivals across the remainder of the contest to eventually take the chequered flag 2.1 seconds clear of Manuel Gonzalez, who finally secured a long-awaited first Moto2 rostrum.
The Yamaha VR46 Master Camp rider stalked the leading group across the opening half of the race before electing to strike as Aldeguer worked his way through. He first moved clear of Dixon before then passing Canet.
Gonzalez was forced to hold off the Pons racer on the final circulation though as he staged a last-gasp attack, Canet diving through at Turn 4 before Gonzalez crossed him back over.
Canet then dived through at the final bend to try and grab second, though Gonzalez once again achieved superior momentum to secure the spot by just 0.009s.
Ai Ogura meanwhile came out on top of a frenetic battle with Dixon to secure fourth, the duo swapping positions several times on the last lap before the Honda Team Asia man got the better of the GasGas pilot on the run to the line.
Celestino Vietti struggled to match his qualifying form and ended up sixth ahead of Somkiat Chantra, while freshly crowned Moto2 world champion Pedro Acosta brought his Ajo-run machine home eighth having struggled throughout.
Alonso Lopez was ninth on the other Speed Up entry, while Tony Arbolino completed the top ten for Marc VDS.
Pole-man Joe Roberts looked strong in the early laps, though eventually faded back to 11th by the time he crossed the line after 18 laps – the American narrowly holding off a charging Sam Lowes. The Brit dropped back to 18th from the second row early on, though he looked after his rubber well to recover ground, even posting the fastest lap of the race on the last tour.
With the top two spots in the championship already decided, the focus is now on the tussle between Dixon, Aldeguer, and Canet in next weekend’s season finale in Valencia for the final spot on the championship rostrum. Dixon now holds a reduced seven-point advantage over Aldeguer, with Canet a further 12 points adrift.
Keyword: Aldeguer shatters competition to secure third straight Moto2 win in Qatar