Celestino Vietti (Mooney VR46 Racing Team) has extended his Moto2™ World Championship lead with victory at the Gran Premi Monster Energy de Catalunya, after passing Aron Canet (Flexbox HP40) on the last lap. Those two became locked in a duel for top spot after Joe Roberts (Italtrans Racing Team) crashed out of a seemingly comfortable lead halfway into the 22-lap contest at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, while Augusto Fernandez (Red Bull KTM Ajo) made it onto the podium with a final-lap pass of his own.

Fernandez’s move was on another rider who had spent time in first position during the race, Jake Dixon (Inde GASGAS Aspar Team), and the Briton would take the chequered flag in fourth position, ahead of Marcel Schrötter (Liqui Moly Intact GP) and Pedro Acosta (Red Bull KTM Ajo). Ai Ogura (Idemitsu Honda Team Asia) finished seventh, meaning he retains second position in the World Championship but is now 16 points in arrears of Vietti rather than being behind on a tie-break only.

Roberts made a good getaway when the lights went out but it was Dixon, braking late on the outside, who led the field in and out of the first corner. However, he held the position only until Turn 5, where Roberts went down the inside, while Canet took up third spot. Just behind them, Albert Arenas (Inde GASGAS Aspar Team) overtook pole-sitter Vietti for fourth as they ran through Turns 7 and 8.

That was how they ran as they completed the standing lap, before Canet picked off Dixon through Turn 4 next time through. At the start of Lap 3, the battle for the live World Championship lead between Vietti and Ogura, tied on points at the start of the day, began in earnest when the Japanese rider braked late and went down the inside of the Italian for fifth spot at Turn 1. Ogura then had a lunge at Arenas on Lap 5 at Turn 5 but could not make the pass stick and instead spent the next three laps trading positions with Vietti.

Vietti had finally shaken off Ogura when the latter ran wide through Turn 4 on Lap 8 and handed over sixth spot to Augusto Fernandez (Red Bull KTM Ajo). Ogura then became embroiled in a similarly willing duel with Schrötter which saw the two make contact at Turn 10 at one point, before the German finally made seventh position his own on Lap 9.

It was looking good for Roberts, who was already pulling away when there was more contact at Turn 10, this time as Dixon relieved Canet of second spot on Lap 10. However, disaster struck for the American on the following tour when, with an advantage of 2.5 seconds up his sleeve, he threw it all away with a crash at Turn 5. What looked like a case of one rider streaking away with victory became a scenario of less than a second covering a top five of Dixon, Canet, Arenas, Vietti, and Fernandez, with Schrötter not too far behind.

Vietti made an unsuccessful attempt to pass Arenas for third at Turn 10 on Lap 12, but was handed the place when the Spaniard ran wide two corners later anyway. Then, when Canet overtook Dixon for the lead at the start of Lap 13, and Vietti also got by #96 on Lap 15 at Turn 2, the stage was set for an enthralling finish.

Proving that Turn 10 was his preferred place to do business, Vietti showed his hand with a dive at Canet at that corner on Lap 16, but the Spaniard responded when he got a tow off the VR46 entry and slipped back down the inside as they turned into the first corner on Lap 18. In something of a case of history repeating, Vietti made a bold move on Lap 21 at Turn 10, but then Canet squeezed past at Turn 1 on the 22nd and final lap.

It was looking like Canet might finally break through for his first ever victory in the intermediate class – and the world would finally know what the reason for his parc ferme bowtie is. However, when he ran ever so slightly wide as he negotiated Turn 10 for the final time, Vietti did not waste the opportunity. The Italian jammed his bike in the small gap which had been left open, and rode on to a 0.081 second win which represents a welcome 25-point haul after a DNF a week ago.

Meanwhile, the contest for the final step of the podium eventually became a race in two. Arenas had already ceded fourth position to Fernandez and fifth to Schrötter when he stopped with an apparent technical problem, just over two laps from home. Schrötter could not quite keep touch with the top four but Fernandez was going with Dixon, and when the Aspar rider was wide through Turn 12 on the final lap, the KTM Ajo pilot helped himself to third spot.

As such, it was a top five of Vietti, Canet, Fernandez, Dixon, and Schrötter, with last-start winner Pedro Acosta (Red Bull KTM Ajo) gradually climbing to sixth at the finish from outside the top 10 in the opening stages. Ogura faded for pace but managed to get home in seventh, ahead of Alonso Lopez (Lightech Speed Up) and Manual Gonzalez (Yamaha VR46 Master Camp Team). Tony Arbolino (Elf Marc VDS Racing Team) had to serve a long lap penalty for a shortcut on his way to 10th all-told, one spot up on Lorenzo Dalla Porta (Italtrans Racing Team), while Somkiat Chantra (Idemitsu Honda Team Asia) wound up 12th. The rest of the points finishers were Bo Bendsneyder (Pertamina Mandalika SAG Team), Jorge Navarro (Flexbox HP40), and Fermin Aldeguer (Lightech Speed Up).

Sam Lowes (Elf Marc VDS Racing Team) was a high-profile retirement when he crashed out of sixth position on the penultimate lap. He joined a list of DNFs comprised also of Arenas, Alessandro Zaccone (Gresini Racing Moto2™), Roberts, Cameron Beaubier (American Racing), Filip Salac (Gresini Racing Moto2™), and Alex Toledo (Pertamina Mandalika SAG Team).

Can Ogura hit back? Will Canet bag his first intermediate class win? The answers to these questions, and more, will come with Round 10, the Liqui Moly Motorrad Grand Prix Deutschland, takes place at the Sachsenring on June 17-19.

Moto2™ Race Top 10:

1. Celestino Vietti (Mooney VR46 Racing Team)
2. Aron Canet (Flexbox HP40) + 0.081
3. Augusto Fernandez (Red Bull KTM Ajo) + 0.522
4. Jake Dixon (Inde GASGAS Aspar Team) + 0.646
5. Marcel Schrotter (Liqui Moly Intact GP) + 1.470
6. Pedro Acosta (Red Bull KTM Ajo) + 6.298
7. Ai Ogura (Idemitsu Honda Team Asia) + 6.320
8. Alonso Lopez (Lightech Conveyors Speed Up) + 7.229
9. Manuel Gonzalez (Yamaha VR46 Master Camp Team) + 10.746
10. Tony Arbolino (Elf Marc VDS Racing Team) + 12.056