Senna Agius earned his second successive victory in the Moto2 class following a hard-fought battle at the Spanish GP in Jerez.
Agius became the first Australian rider to take consecutive victories in the intermediate class since Remy Gardner in 2021, who also took the title in that year.
Manuel Gonzalez made the best start from third on the grid and swept into the lead at the first corner ahead of polesitter Collin Veijer.
However, the Dutchman wasted no time in getting back into first place, making his move stick on Gonzalez at the end of the first tour of the circuit.
Agius also made a good start and toughed it out on the outside of Alonso Lopez to move up into third on the opening lap.
Agius then had the pace to get past team-mate Gonzalez, as the Australian moved into second and just behind Veijer.
Further down the order, Barry Baltus made the most of his early pace and set successive fastest laps to move into the top five, before producing a fourth-lap overtake on Lopez to take fourth at Turn 2.
Immediately, the top three managed to break away from the rest of the field, opening up a gap on the group of riders behind – and were further helped by Baltus crashing out of fourth on Lap 8.
The trio were also aided by earlier contact between Alex Escrig and the Aspar pair of Daniel Holgado and David Alonso at Turn 1 on Lap 6.
The contact halted Alonso’s momentum, who had moved back into touching distance of the top five after dropping down to 18th on the start before being demoted to 10th.
There was no further action taken after the incident, but the contact made the battle for fourth heat up after Lopez also crashed out.
With five laps remaining, Agius finally decided to strike and made his move on Veijer to snatch the lead of the race.
Gonzalez also took momentum from his team-mate’s overtake and passed Veijer to take second, but was unable to touch Agius at the front.
Agius eventually crossed the line to claim victory by 0.885s over team-mate Gonzalez in second.
Veijer completed the podium in third, holding off a valiant charge from Alonso who took fourth.
Celestino Vietti rounded out the top five, over six seconds clear of the second group led by Daniel Munoz in sixth.
Izan Guevara finished seventh ahead of a fightback from former team-mate Tony Arbolino in eighth.
Escrig crossed the line in ninth after struggling with his tyres in the latter stages of the race, while Ivan Ortola completed the top 10.
Holgado finished 11th after the contact with Escrig and Alonso, with Ayumu Sasaki in 12th and Deniz Oncu in 13th.
The American Racing team rounded out the points finishers, with Filip Salac taking 14th ahead of Joe Roberts in 15th.
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