Alonso Lopez eased to a second Moto2 win of 2022 at Phillip Island despite having to serve an early long-lap penalty, while Augusto Fernandez crashed to cede the points lead.
Lopez made a lightning start from third on the grid to snatch away the leadership in the early meters of the Australian Grand Prix, the Speed Up racer immediately crafting a 1.7 second advantage in just two laps in anticipation of his long-lap punishment he was awarded prior to the race for irresponsible riding in Friday’s opening practice session.
Having bolted to a near three-second lead by the time he took his penalty on the fourth tour, Lopez managed to hang onto the lead and quickly resumed his demolition of the field.
He enjoyed a gap as high as 4.5 seconds across the remaining laps over KTM Ajo’s Pedro Acosta before ultimately taking the chequered flag in dominant style by just over 3.5 seconds ahead of the reigning Moto3 world champion.
Acosta looked to be in for an entertaining battle with team-mate and championship leader Fernandez as the latter stalked his young countryman, though disaster struck just past half-distance as he seemingly carried a little too much speed into Turn 2 in the tow of Acosta – losing the front of his machine and crashing out as a result.
His non-score would allow title rival Ai Ogura a get-out-of-jail-free card due to the Japanese rider struggling once again for speed in the race having qualified a lowly 13th, the Honda Team Asia man taking 11th after profiting from several crashes ahead of his throughout the race – thus affording him a 3.5 point lead in the series with just two races left to run.
Jake Dixon meanwhile managed to pick up the pieces of Fernandez’s potentially crucial error to complete the rostrum positions, the GasGas pilot pulling off an impressive comeback ride from 14th on the grid to third having lapped at a similar pace to the two leaders once in clear air.
The sister Speed Up entry of pole-man Fermin Aldeguer came home fourth after passing a fading Cameron Beaubier at the death, the Spaniard struggling for performance in the early stages before charging back through in the closing laps.
Manuel Gonzalez meanwhile matched his best result of the year in fifth on his Yamaha Master Camp-run bike, with Jeremy Alcoba doing likewise for Intact GP in sixth.
Beaubier ended up slipping to seventh having challenged Dixon for a large part of the race for third, the American heading Somkiat Chantra and Aron Canet home, while Bo Bensneyder rounded off the top ten for the SAG squad.
Tony Arbolino saw an early podium push ended with a fast crash at Turn 8 while running second after just over half-a-dozen circulations, while Filip Salac and Celestino Vietti both saw top six results go to waste with crashes of their own at Turns 1 and 6 respectively around mid-distance.
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