Ai Ogura took a significant Moto2 victory ahead of Aron Canet to take the championship lead at Misano.
MT Helmets’ Ogura crossed the line 0.609s ahead of Canet to jump ahead of teammate Sergio Garcia, who could only manage a 12th-place finish, in the Riders’ standings.
It was a great start for the poleman Tony Arbolino of MarcVDS as he pulled away from Ogura, who passed KTM Ajo rider Celestino Vietti at Turn 1 to move up into second.
A calm first lap ended with SpeedUp’s Alonso Lopez in the gravel after crashing out of the final corner while running sixth, delivering another blow to his championship chances.
Aron Canet was setting an electric pace in the opening stages and overtook Vietti for third on Lap 2, and then set the lap record while overtaking Ogura for second as he looked to get on terms with Arbolino out front.
The Gresini pair of Manuel Gonzalez and Albert Arenas were exchanging places for fifth and sixth, with Gonzalez bettering Arenas behind the leading quartet.
Championship leader Garcia, who was having a nightmare weekend after qualifying down in 26th, got a solid start and moved up to 21st as he looked to progress through the field.
Fermin Aldeguer was attempting to recover from his crash last weekend at Aragon, and overtook Arenas for 6th and was followed through by Diogo Moreira and Jake Dixon.
Out front, it was Canet with the pace and he overtook Arbolino for the lead, looking to use his advantage to break away from the Italian.
A few errors from Arbolino after losing the lead allowed Ogura to pass him for second as the Japanese rider looked to close the gap to Canet.
Further down the field, Garcia was on the road to recovery as he overtook the American Racing duo of Joe Roberts and Marcos Ramirez on Lap 17 to move up into the points positions.
Out front Canet’s pace was slowing up which allowed Ogura, Arbolino and Vietti back into contention for the victory.
It was Ogura who took advantage with his superior late-race pace, as he overtook Canet for the lead and attempted to break with four laps to go.
Vietti, who was the fastest of the leading four, crashed out of fourth place, putting an end to any chances of a home victory for the KTM Ajo rider.
It was Ogura who took victory, six-tenths clear of Canet in second as poleman Arbolino brought it home in third.
Gonzalez kept his faint championship hopes alive with a fourth-place finish, ahead of form-man Dixon in fifth.
SpeedUp’s Aldeguer was sixth ahead of Filip Salac in seventh and Moreira in eighth – Arenas and Husqvarna rider Darryn Binder rounded out the top-10.
Binder’s team-mate Senna Agius finished 11th with Garcia’s charge ending in 12th and the Spaniard relinquished his championship lead in the process.
Roberts had an underwhelming afternoon in 13th with future MotoGP rider Somkiat Chantra and American racing’s second rider Ramirez completing the points-paying positions in the final race classification.
