Aron Canet has finally put an end to his Moto2 victory curse, securing his first race victory in the intermediate class after a mid-race crash for Alonso Lopez in Portugal.
Ducati’s newest signing for 2025 Fermin Aldeguer took the lead into Turn 1, but the Spaniard jumped the start resulting in him receiving two long lap penalties which he had to take within a three lap timespan.
With team-mate Lopez leading comfortably before crashing with 11 laps to go, Canet took over proceedings and never looked back in a comfortable ride as he built a two second lead over the rest of the pack.
Joe Roberts had a steady start after qualifying fifth and gathered momentum through the middle of the race as he rose up to second place, a position he will be happy with at a track that suits his style – bringing a lot of much-needed positivity to the American Racing Team heading into their home race at Circuit of the Americas next month.
Pole-sitter Manuel Gonzalez had a poor getaway at the start due to the SpeedUp duo getting ahead, but fought back into contention to complete the podium.
After taking both long lap penalties Aldeguer fell back down the pecking order to 13th with a lot of ground to make up – before making a sensational fightback to finish in fourth.
A podium was slightly out of reach for the Spaniard due to his limited grip on his tyres near the end.
Team-mates Ai Ogura and Sergio Garcia wrapped up a more than respectable fifth and sixth place after finishing third and fourth last time around in Qatar.
A three-way battle between Celstino Vietti, Albert Arenas, Marcos Ramirez followed, where all three riders finished within half a second.
Thai rider Somkiat Chantra rounded off the top 10 to add to his point tally for the season.
But the star of the show was Canet, an enigmatic rider with a renowned yet wild personality and that was evident during the final lap.
As he rounded the final corner, an infamous and daunting banked sweeping curve, Canet elected to raise his outside leg into the air in early celebration and waved an arm as well.
The early celebration was a risk, but one that went unpunished and Canet crossed the line to take an emotional win and paid tribute to his grandfather and his wife’s grandfather post-race.
