Fermin Aldeguer cruised to a fourth straight Moto2 win to end his campaign in commanding style, the Speed Up man sealing third overall in the rider’s standings as a result.
Aldeguer made a rapid start to jump pole man Aron Canet to snatch away the leadership, the Spaniard swiftly trying to break his pursuers by posting the fastest lap on the third tour.
Canet did his level best to challenge Aldeguer in the opening stages as he looked to secure his first intermediate class win, as well as his Pons outfit’s last as it waves goodbye to the grand prix paddock after an illustrious history across the three series after this weekend.
His hopes of a fairytale victory eventually faded though as Aldeguer started to stretch ever further away, Canet falling over three seconds adrift of the lead by the time two-thirds distance had been reached.
Continuing the metronomic form he has shown in the final races of 2023, Aldeguer managed things to perfection out front to eventually cross the line for a fifth win of the year by 3.9 seconds. His success also lifted him to third in the standings, as rival for the spot Jake Dixon could manage only sixth on Sunday.
Canet at least managed to give Pons a rostrum result on its swansong, while the other Speed Up entry of Alonso Lopez completed the podium following an impressive comeback.
Lopez launched from 14th on the grid to end the second tour challenging for a top-five spot, pushing 2023 Moto2 champion Pedro Acosta out at Turn 4. He later pulled the same aggressive move on Dixon as well as American Racing’s Marcos Ramirez to claim third.
Ramirez was keen to add a second rostrum finish of the year to his CV though and managed to come back at Lopez as the race neared its conclusion as he had preserved his rubber more effectively. Ramirez stalked his prey and eventually dived down the inside of Lopez at the final corner on the last lap, though failed to achieve a good enough exit and lost the spot once more by just 0.021s.
Honda Team Asia’s Somkiat Chantra completed the top five meanwhile, the Indonesian ace getting the better of Dixon as the GasGas rider faded in the latter stages.
Sam Lowes finished his final Moto2 outing before moving to the World Superbike Championship on a positive note by claiming seventh for Marc VDS, while Joe Roberts led home Italtrans team-mate Dennis Foggia for ninth.
Albert Arenas meanwhile got the better of MotoGP-bound team-mate Acosta to round off the top ten, the latter never recovering from getting beaten up in the middling stages of the encounter to end his title-winning campaign with his equal-worst result of the year in 12th.
The opening lap saw a nasty crash eliminate Izan Guevara, Sergio Garcia, and Celestino Vietti, with Garcia getting run over by Guevara’s machine. The Pons man fortunately walked away from the incident, as did the other riders involved.
Kohta Nozane also went down on the opening lap at the final turn, but the Yamaha VR46 Master Camp pilot also walked away without injury.
