Ai Ogura won the FIM Moto2 World Championship race Sunday at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, in Spain. Starting 10th on the grid, Ogura was able to come through the field and pull away to win the 21-lap race by 3.816 seconds on his MT Helmets – MSI Boscoscuro.
Ogura’s teammate Sergio Garcia, the current World Championship point leader, took the checkered flag in second place.
British rider Jake Dixon came home third on his CFMOTO Inde Aspar Team Kalex, earning only his second point-scoring finish of the season.
OnlyFans American Racing Team’s Joe Roberts was one of several riders who were assessed Long Lap penalties for exceeding track limits during the race, but the American was still able to finish eighth and hang on to second place in the point standings.
More, from a press release issued by Pirelli:
Pirelli revolutionises the Catalunya GP records, Ogura and Alonso win
All-time track and race lap records substantially improved on in both categories with significant improvements in overall race times as well
The streak of records broken by Pirelli in the Moto2™ and Moto3™ World Championships continues. At the Catalunya GP, raced on the Montmelò track, the DIABLO™ Superbike slicks once again contributed to breaking the all-time track and race lap records in both categories, also significantly reducing the overall race times.
In Moto2™, Ai Ogura (MT Helmets-MSI/Boscoscuro) took the win after a spectacular comeback ride from the tenth spot on the grid. Another victory – his fourth this year – went to David Alonso (CFMOTO Gaviota Aspar Team/CFMOTO), who firmly leads in the Moto3™ standings with 118 championship points.
Giorgio Barbier, Motorcycle Racing Director
Completely rewritten records and increasingly faster races
“We are undoubtedly extremely satisfied with the performance of our tyres this weekend and I think that the teams and riders also share this satisfaction. Everyone knows that the Montmeló circuit is a rather demanding track in terms of tyres because of the low grip and it is hard on the front tyres, so this difficult setting only makes the results achieved that much more impressive. Thanks in part to the performance of our tyres, numerous records were set, but the most impressive part of this is by how much these records were broken, because it isn’t a matter of shaving off a little time, but rather drastically better times than in the past. The new all-time track record in Moto2 was broken by more than 1 second and in Moto3 by an incredible 1.5 seconds. In Moto2, the new race lap record is more than 1 second faster than the previous one with 12 riders breaking the old record. In Moto3, it was broken by 1.5 seconds and no fewer than 17 riders beat the previous lap record. And then there are the overall race times. The Moto2 race was 18 seconds faster than in 2023 and the Moto3 time was a full 35 seconds faster, so an average of almost 2 seconds per lap faster than 2023. These are significant numbers that clarify the idea of what kind of progress is being made compared with previous years and we are convinced that throughout the year, the teams and riders will continue to improve as they get to know our tyres better and better.”
The Race Of The Tyres
Moto2™
· Rider choice was unanimous for the rear tyre. Everyone was on the starting grid with the soft SC0. Front tyre choice was more varied, with about half of the 32 riders on the soft SC1 and the other half on the medium SC2. All three riders on the podium used the soft SC1 at the front.
· Japanese rider Ai Ogura (MT Helmets-MSI/Boscoscuro) won the race, which ran 21 laps, in 36’33.540, a time almost 18 seconds faster than 2023 with an average improvement per lap of about 9 tenths and asphalt temperatures 10°C higher than those in 2023.
· Before crashing out of the race, Fermín Aldeguer (MB Conveyors SpeedUp/Boscoscuro) set the new race lap record with a time of 1’42.688 on the second lap, breaking the old one by more than 1 second, which had been set by Raul Fernandez in 2021 (1’43.757). In addition to the Spaniard, another eleven riders did at least one lap faster than the previous track record time.
Moto3™
· With asphalt temperatures close to 40°C, most of the riders on the grid opted for tyres in the medium SC2 compound for both the front and the rear. In fact, 19 out of 27 riders chose this combination and 25 of them put on the SC2 front. Choosing the medium SC2 for both axles was also race winner David Alonso (CFMOTO Gaviota Aspar Team/CFMOTO) and pole man (and second-place finisher) Iván Ortolá (MT Helmets-MSI/KTM).
· Only 6 riders used the soft SC1 at the rear, including Collin Veijer (Liqui Moly Husqvarna Intact GP/Husqvarna) and Jose Antonio Rueda (Red Bull KTM Ajo/KTM) who, starting respectively from the second and third spots on the grid, finished fourth and third.
· The race (overall time 32’25.084) was almost 35 seconds faster than the 2023 race (33’00.945), with an average improvement per lap of almost 2 seconds.
· Jose Antonio Rueda (Red Bull KTM Ajo/KTM), with SC2 front and rear tyres, set the new race lap record with a time of 1’46.748 on the penultimate of the 18 total laps, breaking the previous record by almost 1.5 seconds which had been set by Darryn Binder in 2021 (1’48.209). Overall, 17 riders dropped below the previous track race lap record.
