Valencia Moto2: Acosta wins, Fernandez is champion as Ogura crashes out

Pedro Acosta led a controlled race once he took over for Moto2 Valencia victory, but the day belonged to new champion Augusto Fernandez in second over the line after Ogura’s early exit.

Lisa Lewis

06 Nov 2022

Augusto Fernandez, Pedro Acosta , 2022 Moto2 Valencia

Pedro Acosta gave a reminder of what he is capable of with an emphatic win with a controlled performance as he responded every time August Fernandez tried to take the title with a win leaving him a solid second as he finishes the season champion after the Moto2 finale in Valencia.

Alonso Lopez had started from pole for the first time and was the early race leader. His early fiery performance, including contact with Acosta which lead to a conduct warning, and several near misses including a save on his elbows which indicated the Beta Tools Speed Up rider and his Boscoscuro would not go race distance, and that came to be with 21 laps still to run.

That left Tony Arbolino in control out front, who immediately took advantage and a gap with a fastest race lap.

The Elf Marc VDS rider was under pressure from Ai Ogura and Acosta with Fernandez keeping safe in fourth.

Title decided as Ogura hits the gravel

With crucial DNFs and errors leading up to the final battle at Ricardo Tormo, with Augusto Fernandez picking up zero points in Australia before Ai Ogura’s sensational exit last time out in Malaysia, the swing of power meant the final round could go either way.

The title was decided while Arbolino was leading, when Ai Ogura started to challenge for the win which would have handed him the championship, coming unstuck out of turn seven on lap eight.

Under pressure from Acosta, the Japanese rider pushed into the corner and had a strange fall where the front of his Idemitsu Honda seemed to struggle and lock, sending him flying through the gravel. In a strange turn of events his team-mate Somkiat Chantra suffered a carbon copy crash later in the race, suggesting bike set up rather than rider might have been the cause.

That took the pressure of Fernandez, as the Red Bull KTM Ajo pair caught and dropped Arbolino.

The #37 tried to go for the win, but was equally happy to take his title on the podium, finishing second by 1.232s as he gave up the chase, with Acosta taking his third win of his rookie season. Fernandez changed into gold leathers to celbrate on the podium, completed with a gold helmet beside him.

Arbolino was the first to congratulate Fernandez, with Ogura clapping his rivals performance graciously from his garage.

Malaysian grand prix winner Arbolino was third but ten seconds adrift by the time the chequered flag waved.

Fermin Aldeguer went backwards at the start after sitting up Fernandez but fought back to be the only Boscoscuro finisher in fourth.

Albert Arenas progressed to fifth, around four seconds behind Aldeguer to the finish line for Inde GasGas Aspar.

He held off a late charge from Manuel Gonzalez, who finished just short of equalling his best finish with the Yamaha VR46 Master Camp team this season in sixth.

Jake Dixon makes huge comeback to claim seventh.

Fifth after free practice, Dixon’s weekend came unravelled when he felt ill at ease on hos GasGas Aspar in qualifying, which lead to him starting 15th on the grid.

As the lights went out the British rider saw his situation worsen, getting swallowed up and dropping to as low as 23rd.

Undeterred, the #96 persisted and came through, aided by several falls ahead on the way to finish seventh - with the pace to run at the front.

Jeremy Alcoba was eighth. The Liqui Moly Intact GP rider again showed his aggressive side, causing Mattia Pasini to crash (replacing Barry Baltus at Rw Racing GP) after putting a move on the Italian from way back, with contact from a a shoulder barge as he pushed his Kalex under taking the #11 out of the race.

That lead to a long lap penalty and eighth place.

Senna Agius is back to replace Sam Lowes at Marc VDS to aid his recovery for next season and he made the most of his final replacement rider with the team to finish ninth, smashing his previous best of 16th and picking up his first world championship points.

Marcel Schrotter bowed out of the world championship with a top ten finish on the second Liqui Moly Intact GP entry.

Bo Bendsneyder (Pertamina Mandalika SAG Team) worked his way into the points to finish eleventh, ahead of Manuel Gonzalez (Yamaha VR46 Master Camp Team), who came through for twelfth.

The remaining points on offer went to Filip Salac (Gresini Moto2) in 13th, Lorenzo Dalla Porta (Italtrans) in 14th and his team-mate Joe Roberts, who had turned his weekend around in qualifying finding his way through Q1 to sixth on the grid before needing to come back from a poor start in the race for 15th.

Crashes and penalties

Aron Canet was ready for his home round and back in good spirits, with a special paella themed helmet, as he hunted an elusive first win, but he was out of contact and soon out of the race.

He lasted longer than Simone Corsi who saw his last Moto2 race end on the first lap.

Niccolo Antonelli and Cameron Beaubier also fell, as did Taiga Hada, who received a long lap penalty for crashing under yellow flag conditions, but remounted to finish 22nd.

Celestino Vietti also tried to rejoin the race, but was shown the ‘meatball’ flag for a technical issue on his bike and forced to retire.

Where does that leave the final championship standings?

Augusto Fernandez and Ai Ogura took their battle for the Moto2 crown all the way to the wire with the gap as small as half a point in the race. 9.5 points separated the dup before the race.

After the fall and Fernandez picking up positions the final gap stood at 29.5 points.

Ogura finished the season second, with Arbolino in of a shout of third before the race, when in the lead he could have took the position, but even though he fell Canet finished the season third, with Arbolino fourth overall

Acosta took the top rookie title in style with his win.

Early championship leader Celestno Vietti’s season was summed up by his drop to seventh overall, losing a place to Jake Dixon who finished sixth after his strong end to his season as the Italian failed to go the distance.