Manuel Gonzalez cruised to a commanding victory in the opening round of the Moto2 season at the Chang International Circuit in Thailand. 

Gonzalez was the dominant rider all weekend, and led from the third lap onwards to take control of the race. 

It was Celestino Vietti who got the best start from second on the grid to take the lead going into Turn 1 ahead of polesitter Gonzalez. 

Senna Agius also made a good start and took third on the opening lap by overtaking Aron Canet. 

Gonzalez made a move on Vietti towards the end of the second lap, but the Italian was able to turn under the IntactGP rider to retake the lead a corner later. 

Darryn Binder and Izan Guevara made progress into fourth and sixth, but were hit with double long lap penalties for a jump start. 

Gonzalez made a move on Vietti and this time was able to make it stick to take the lead on lap three.

Canet was hoping to recover after dropping a few positions on the start and made his way back into fourth, but was pressured by Diogo Moreira.

The gaps between the leading riders stabilised, with Gonzalez pulling seven tenths clear of Vietti in second, who himself maintained a similar gap to Agius behind. 

The key battle on track was for sixth position as Barry Baltus looked to maintain position despite pressure from Marcos Ramirez and Jake Dixon. 

Ramirez was then able to take the position from the Belgian rider and set his sights on the riders in front.

Towards the front, the gap between Vietti and Agius closed as the Australian saw an opportunity to make a move, but made contact with the Italian which saw him out of the race. 

Agius was awarded a long lap penalty which saw him demoted to fourth, behind the duelling Canet and Moreira. 

The IntactGP rider was clearly faster than the Brazilian in third, but waited until there were two laps remaining to make his move onto the podium.

Moreira refused to give into the pressure and retook the place as the riders headed onto the final lap of the race.

At the front, Gonzalez took the chequered flag by 2.787s to seal his debut win for the IntactGP team.

Canet took a comfortable second place from third on the grid as Agius held on to complete the rostrum. 

Moreira missed out on the podium by three tenths in fourth, while Ramirez held onto his fifth position.

Baltus took a welcome sixth ahead of Dixon on his debut outing with the Marc VDS team, as rookie Dani Holgado was eighth. 

Filip Salac took ninth over the line, eight tenths clear of Alonso Lopez who rounded out the top ten for the SpeedUp team.

Gresini’s Albert Arenas finished 11th with Deniz Oncu trailing behind in 12th, while Pramac Yamaha took 13th with Tony Arbolino.

Rookie Adrian Huertas was 14th after switching over from WorldSSP, as Mario Aji completed the points finishers in 15th.

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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.

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