Gresini’s Manuel Gonzalez earned a dramatic first Moto2 win over Ai Ogura thanks to a strategic masterclass in Motegi.
In a restarted race due to rainy conditions, Gonzalez elected to remain with slick tyres, which allowed the Spanish rider a bizarre route to his first Grand Prix victory.
Aspar’s Jake Dixon got away well from pole position as he led the field going into the first corner.
It appeared as if it would be an Aspar 1-2 coming out of Turn 1, but Guevara was overly ambitious with his move on Van den Goorbergh and pushed both riders wide.
Immediately after the race started, the rain started to come down significantly, and the marshals waved the red and white flag due to the wet conditions.
The riders were clearly unhappy with the track and the red flag was thrown out before the first lap was completed.
Race direction decided that the race would resume with 12 laps to be completed.
The rainy conditions caused uncertainty in the pit lane about whether it was damp enough to switch to the wet tyres.
Most of the riders on the grid elected for the rain tyres, with the home hero Ai Ogura one of the exceptions as he headed out onto the second sighting lap on slicks.
On the restart, Dixon managed to get away well again from pole position, and this time it would be an Aspar 1-2 as Guevara learned from his mistake on the first try.
It was the KTM Ajo of Celestino Vietti and the MarcVDS of Tony Arbolino who looked to have the early rhythm in the difficult conditions, and were able to move themselves up into the top five.
Ogura’s gamble had him down in 14th after the first lap, but it was clear that his tyres were the best choice as the race progressed.
By the third lap, the local hero moved past Dixon for the race’s lead as his gamble quickly paid off.
The remaining slick tyre runners were able to slice through the field with ease, as the top six became the six riders who made the switch.
Manuel Gonzalez was the fastest rider on track and was able to close down the four second gap to Ogura out front.
Gonzalez made his pace advantage count as he overtook the Japanese rider and was on course to cruise to a maiden Moto2 victory.
The Gresini rider saw out the race to take his first victory ahead of championship leader Ogura.
MarcVDS’ Filip Salac rounded out the podium in third after beating Jeremy Alcoba in the podium fight.
Zonta Van den Goorbergh recovered after a difficult restart to take fifth on the slick tyres, with Xavi Artigas completing a slick tyre lock-out of the top six
Vietti crossed the line as the best of the slick tyre runners in seventh, some 53 seconds behind Gonzalez
Diogo Moreira took eighth in the difficult conditions ahead of Alonso Lopez in ninth, as Guevara eventually crossed the line in 10th.
Arbolino took 11th after fighting off SpeedUp’s Fermin Aldeguer and polesitter Dixon, who came home in 12th and 13th respectively.
Sergio Garcia added two points to his tally as he took 14th on the line, while Darryn Binder earned the final points position in 15th.
