Fermin Aldeguer is back! After mistakes in Barcelona and Assen, the upcoming MotoGP rider triumphed in an action-packed Moto2 race at the Sachsenring ahead of Jake Dixon. Behind him, Ai Ogura, Diogo Moreira and Jake Dixon were engaged in a thrilling three-way battle for the last podium place. Sergio Garcia could not get past seventh place, and Marcel Schrötter just missed the points in 17th place.
Garcia remains the Moto2 World Championship leader with 147 points, but is now only seven points ahead of teammate Ogura (140). Joe Roberts is 24 points behind, and Aldeguer is still 39 points behind.
Moto2 at the Sachsenring: The racing film
The starting line-up: 1. Vietti, 2. Dixon, 3. Aldeguer, 4. Agius, 5. Gonzalez, 6. Arbolino, 7. Ogura, 8. Moreira, 9. Ramirez, 10. Lopez, 11. Roberts, 12. S. Garcia, 13. Guevara, 14. Canet, 15. Bendsneyder, 16. Binder, 17. Chantra, 18. Foggia, 19. Masia, 20. Munoz, 21. Sasaki, 22. Schrötter, 23. Alcoba, 24. R. Garcia, 25. Aji, 26. Arenas, 27. Baltus, 28. van den Goorbergh, 29. Artigas, 30. Escrig
Begin: Jake Dixon gets off to the best start and takes the lead ahead of Celestino Vietti. Fermin Aldguer follows ahead of Senna Agius and Tony Arbolino, then Manuel Gonzalez ahead of Ai Ogura, Alonso Lopez and Sergio Garcia, who immediately gained three places.
1 round: Vietti immediately regains first place, behind him Arbolino takes fourth place from Agius.
2nd round: Arbolino is on the rise. He first catches Aldeguer and then Dixon, putting him in second place. Aldeguer takes the opportunity and overtakes Dixon as well.
3rd round: Aldeguer counters against Arbolino in the final corner.
4th round: Aldeguer takes the lead in turn 12! Arbolino also slips past Vietti.
5th round: Dixon has fallen back to fifth place behind Agius. The young Spaniard wants to move further forward and attacks Vietti directly, but cannot find a way past.
7th round: Arbolino leads! He pushes past Aldeguer in turn 12 with a risky maneuver, which causes the latter to lose momentum and also let Vietti pass again in the final corner.
8th round: Aldeguer counters Vietti in turn 8, and behind him Dixon passes Agius again. World Championship leader Garcia is in sixth place and has the leading quintet in sight.
10th round: Another change of lead, this time in turn 1. Aldeguer has passed Arbolino again.
11th round: Ogura overtakes Gonzalez in turn one for seventh place. Directly behind him, Darryn Binder crashes out of the race.
12th round: Aldeguer, Arbolino and Vietti enter turn 12 side by side. Vietti prevails and takes the lead again, then Arbolino and Aldeguer only in P3.
13th round: It remains a varied affair at the front, as Arbolino immediately displaces Vietti from the top spot in turn one.
14th round: Aldeguer pulls himself together again and takes second place back from Vietti. Behind him, Diogo Moreira is making progress and is in sixth place. He has overtaken Garcia and Ogura.
15th round: And Aldeguer is back in the lead! The SpeedUp driver brakes his way past Arbolino with a great maneuver in turn 12.
17th round: Ogura returns and fights his way past Garcia and Moreira to sixth place.
18th round: Arbolino makes a big mistake in turn 7! He goes off the track and falls back to fifth place behind Vietti, Dixon and Agius. This means that Aldeguer suddenly leads by more than a second.
19th round: Arbolino also loses fifth place to Ogura.
20th round: Dixon takes second place from Vietti. Behind him, Garcia also pushes past Arbolino, who is now only seventh.
21st round: The next loss of position for Arbolino, Moreira is over. The MarcVDS driver seems to be running out of tires. Somkiat Chantra is also already lurking.
Ogura takes fourth place from Agius.
22nd round: Garcia and Moreira push past Agius in turn one, Chantra grabs Arbolino.
Mistake by Agius at the exit of Turn 7! He drops back to P8 behind Chantra and Arbolino.
23rd round: Ogura attacks Vietti, but cannot get past. Behind him, Moreira has overtaken Garcia and is flying towards the duo in big strides.
24th and penultimate round: Ogura goes a little wide in the Omega and opens the door for Moreira, who immediately breaks through inside and takes fourth place.
25th and final round: What a three-way battle between Vietti, Ogura and Moreira! The three drivers changed positions several times within just a few corners.
Finish line: Aldeguer takes the win with a lead of 2.1 seconds over Dixon. In the battle for third place, Ogura wins by a hair’s breadth ahead of Moreira, Vietti and Chantra. Garcia comes in seventh, followed by Joe Roberts. Arbolino only comes in ninth, Lopez tenth and Agius only eleventh. 12th place goes to Gonzalez, P13 to Izan Guevara. The last points places are taken by Jeremy Alcoba and Jaume Masia. Marcel Schrötter comes in 17th.