Valencia’s Aron Canet took an emotional Moto2 victory at the SolidarityGP to close out a strong end to the season.
The Fantic rider was able to fend off a late charge from Manuel Gonzalez to take his fourth victory of the year as he ended the campaign second in the standings.
The front row struggled off the start, with poleman Canet wheelieing off the line as second-placed Gonzalez took the lead.
A chaotic start saw Jake Dixon forced to run wide at Turn 2 as he lost time in attempts to avoid taking a shortcut.
Dixon rejoined the race safely but collided with Alonso Lopez, which saw him out of the race along with bystanders Jorge Navarro and wildcard Roberto Garcia after contact with a sliding Dixon.
The chaos continued on the second lap as Zonta van den Goorbergh and Deniz Oncu made contact which forced the Dutch rider to run into the back of Oncu’s teammate Celestino Vietti, taking both riders out of the race.
While the collisions were happening behind, Canet was recovering from his poor start and made his way back into second, allowing the Valencian rider to chase after Gonzalez out front.
Canet’s pass meant he was immediately able to chase down Gonzalez and a strong pass into the penultimate corner saw him take the lead of the race.
The leading pair were able to break away from the rest of the field as the fight appeared to be for third place, with world champion Ai Ogura fending from Diogo Moreira, who was looking to seal the rookie of the year title.
Towards the end of the race, the Pirelli tyres appeared to be going off which allowed Gonzalez to drastically close the gap to Canet out front.
Moreira also looked to take advantage of Ogura’s tyre management as he launched an ambitious move at Turn 3, but the world champion was able to turn under the rookie to retake his position.
The final lap of the race saw Moreira continuing to pressure Ogura and the Brazilian swept past to take the podium, before Ogura once again responded with a strong move at Turn 10.
Gonzalez desperately attempted to challenge Canet out front, but the Fantic rider appeared to be too strong for the Gresini man.
Canet crossed the line to take an emotional victory, as the Valencian rider finished 0.165s clear of Gonzalez in second.
Moreira was able to put a final corner move on Ogura to snatch third place as he sealed the rookie of the year award.
Filip Salac showed strong pace late in the race and took the flag in fifth, while Sergio Garcia had a strong end to the campaign in sixth.
Izan Guevara was seventh after his impressive end to 2024 ahead of Albert Arenas in eighth.
The SpeedUp duo of Alonso Lopez and Fermin Aldeguer finished ninth and tenth respectively, crossing the line side by side and separated by just 0.050s.
Somkiat Chantra was 11th in his final race before moving up to MotoGP while Marcos Ramirez took 12th and Senna Agius narrowly missed out on the rookie of the year title after taking 13th.
Tony Arbolino completed a difficult weekend in 14th as Jaume Masia rounded out the points finishers in 15th.
