Moto2: Dixon Takes First Pole of the Season
02/09/2023 17:07
Jake Dixon takes his first pole of the season at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya from Aron Canet and Ai Ogura. Championship leader Pedro Acosta was only able to manage ninth place for tomorrow's grid and his closest challenger in Tony Arbolino was unable to get himself out of the first qualifying session. The first qualifying session was uneventful with Somkiat Chantra, Sergio Garcia, Filip Salac and Barry Baltus occupying the top four positions for at the end of the session. The early pace setter in this session was Bo Bendsneyder but dropped down to fifth, meaning he will start tomorrow's race from 19th. Arbolino was unable to set a time fast enough to progress due to the bike looking unstable on his last lap, meaning he needed to come into the pits and bail out of the lap. The four riders who came up through Q1 set the initial pace at the start of the second qualifying session with Salac topping the times after the first runs. Following the second set of fast laps Ogura had set the fastest time followed by Albert Arenas and rookie Sergio Garcia. With over half the session to go, Joe Roberts and Alonso Lopez had not set a representative lap time. Acosta and Dixon circulated around the track together towards the end of the session, offering each other a tow on alternating fast laps. With the Brit following the Spaniard, Dixon set the fastest time during the qualifying session, a 1:43.983. After swapping places, Acosta was being led around by Dixon, but the Red Bull KTM Ajo rider exceeded track limits, meaning that his lap was deleted. Canet was also riding around the circuit with a partner, Manuel Gonzalez. This pair helped each other to achieve second and fourth place respectively. On the other hand, Ogura spent most of his time on the track alone but was still able to achieve third place. That quick time from Arenas set earlier in the session was the quickest time he was able to achieve, and this was good enough to place him in fifth place on tomorrow's grid. The highest-placed non-Kalex rider was Fermin Aldeguer in sixth place, followed by his teammate Lopez. Garcia was the highest qualifying rookie in eighth place, being the only rookie to make it through to the second round of qualifying, Due to having a fast time deleted due to track limits, Acosta only starts in ninth place on the grid tomorrow. Baltus rounds out the top ten on the grid tomorrow. Sam Lowes was unable to set a lap time fast enough to break into the top ten and is joined by Chantra on the fourth row of the grid. The fifth row of the grid contains Salac, Roberts and Celestino Vietti, who struggled to set fast times around the Spanish circuit. Tomorrow's race is shaping up to be an exciting 21 laps with Acosta having to work his way through the field to continue extending his championship lead. Feature Image Credit: @AsparTeam on X () 2023 CATALUNYA MOTO2 GRAND PRIX, BARCELONA – QUALIFYING RESULTS POS RIDER NAT TEAM BIKE TIME 1 Jake Dixon GBR Asterius GASGAS Aspar Team (Kalex) 1m 44.089s 2 Aron Canet SPA Pons Wegow Los40 (Kalex) 1m 44.184s 3 Ai Ogura JPN IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia (Kalex) 1m 44.214s 4 Manuel Gonzalez SPA Correos Prepago Yamaha VR46 (Kalex) 1m 44.215s 5 Albert Arenas SPA Red Bull KTM Ajo (Kalex) 1m 44.270s 6 Fermín Aldeguer SPA Beta Tools SpeedUp (Boscoscuro) 1m 44.276s 7 Alonso Lopez SPA Beta Tools SpeedUp (Boscoscuro) 1m 44.344s 8 Sergio Garcia SPA Pons Wegow Los40 (Kalex) 1m 44.374s 9 Pedro Acosta SPA Red Bull KTM Ajo (Kalex) 1m 44.374s 10 Barry Baltus BEL Fieten Olie Racing GP (Kalex) 1m 44.419s 11 Sam Lowes GBR Elf Marc VDS Racing Team (Kalex) 1m 44.458s 12 Somkiat Chantra THA IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia (Kalex) 1m 44.470s 13 Filip Salac CZE QJMOTOR Gresini Moto2 (Kalex) 1m 44.490s 14 Joe Roberts USA Italtrans Racing Team (Kalex) 1m 44.682s 15 Celestino Vietti ITA Fantic Racing (Kalex) 1m 44.838s 16 Jeremy Alcoba SPA QJMOTOR Gresini Moto2 (Kalex) 1m 44.906s 17 Zonta Vd Goorbergh NED Fieten Olie Racing GP (Kalex) 1m 44.983s 18 Marcos Ramirez SPA OnlyFans American Racing (Kalex) 1m 45.202s 19 Bo Bendsneyder NED Pertamina Mandalika SAG Team (Kalex) 1m 44.930s 20 Tony Arbolino ITA Elf Marc VDS Racing Team (Kalex) 1m 45.021s 21 Senna Agius AUS Liqui Moly Husqvarna Intact GP (Kalex) 1m 45.104s 22 Lukas Tulovic GER Liqui Moly Husqvarna Intact GP (Kalex) 1m 45.220s 23 Dennis Foggia ITA Italtrans Racing Team (Kalex) 1m 45.248s 24 Borja Gomez SPA Fantic Racing (Kalex) 1m 45.314s 25 Rory Skinner GBR OnlyFans American Racing (Kalex) 1m 45.607s 26 Mattia Rato ITA Pertamina Mandalika SAG Team (Kalex) 1m 45.784s 27 Alberto Surra ITA Forward Team (Forward) 1m 45.905s 28 Izan Guevara SPA Asterius GASGAS Aspar Team (Kalex) 1m 45.950s 29 Kohta Nozane JPN Correos Prepago Yamaha VR46 (Kalex) 1m 45.983s 30 Yeray Ruiz SPA Forward Team (Forward) 1m 46.321s