MT Helmets’ Ai Ogura fended off a late SpeedUp’s Fermin Aldeguer charge to take victory at Assen’s ‘Cathedral of Speed’ to elevate himself up to second in the Moto2 standings.
The starting foursome of Aldeguer, Ogura, Tony Arbolino and Sergio Garcia jostled for positions in the opening lap, but the latter swapped places with Alonso Lopez and demoted himself down to fifth.
Lopez and Ogura swapped places in the tricky Turn 9 to swap third and fourth place respectively on the second lap.
2025 Ducati MotoGP recruit Aldeguer stretched a gap to half a second in the opening few laps as the MT Helmets duo of Ogura and Garcia led the large pack. Garcia made an audacious attempt on his team-mate, which allowed Aldeguer to gain a further half-second lead inside the first five laps.
Aldeguer was informed of a track limit warning, putting himself under threat of a potential long lap penalty should the Speed Up racer exceed the track’s limits once more.
Local hero Zonta van den Goorbergh crashed himself out of proceedings to the dismay of the local fans.
Aron Canet and Alberto Arenas had separate crashes in Turn 4 on Lap 6 to put themselves out of contention for a strong scoring position to boost their championship bids.
The 2023 Moto3 championship runner-up Ayumu Sasaki crashed once more after clipping the back of Mario Aji’s Idemitsu Team Asia machine heading into the fast chicane, which in turn forced him out wide and, as a result, crashed in the gravel trap.
Back at the front Aldegeur extended his advantage further to 1.3s and appeared comfortable going into the second segment of the race.
Behind the MT Helmets duo was a 2.5s gap to the rest of the pecking order, where Arbolino and Lopez switching fourth and fifth place.
Oguru’s speed was displayed on Lap 13 as he lapped two tenths quicker than Aldeguer in front, with the Japanese rider overtaking his team-mate following a small mistake at the twisty Turn 13.
With nine laps to go, Aldegeur once again exceeded track limits, which resulted in a long lap penalty being awarded. He took it two laps later and rejoined half a second adrift of Garcia.
Dixon elevated himself to fourth to put his CFMoto Aspar bike ahead of Arbolino, but the gap looked too far for the Brit to catch up to the leading trio.
The MTHelmets duo of Garcia and Ogura exchanged the lead at separate incidents with five laps left to go, allowing Aldegeur back into the fight which saw the Spaniard overtake championship leader Garcia on the following lap.
Garcia went in too hot in Turn 1 and went slightly off track as a result, putting himself out of contention for the win as the race went into its final three laps.
As Garcia settled for third place despite having a wobble in Turn 3 on the final lap, tyre wear played a factor for the front two on the final lap. Aldeguer was unable to make any last move attempt as Ogura took victory.
Ogura took his second win of the season and elevated himself to second in the championship, with Aldeguer earning his first podium since his win in Jerez.
Garcia extended his advantage at the top of the standings as he rounded off the rostrum, with Dixon finishing in fourth following a difficult start to his 2024 campaign.
Thai rider Somkiat Chantra provided his Honda Team Asia Idemitsu with an equal high finish of fifth, to the team’s delight, as Arbolino was unable to forge a way through on the final lap.
Marcos Ramirez brought his American Racing Team bike in seventh, a result the team will settle for following Joe Roberts not being able to start following his crash earlier in the week.
Lopez, Manuel Gonzalaz, Senna Agius and Celestino Vietti rounded off eighth to 11th, with all riders ending proceedings separated by half a second .
Dennis Foggia sealed his second point-scoring finish of the season with 12th, ahead of Jacob Alcoba and Dutchman Bo Bendsneyder.
Darryn Binder took the final point as he finished in 15th place, finishing six seconds adrift of the Dutchman.
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