A dominant display from Fantic Racing’s Aron Canet saw him take a six-second victory over the Moto2 field in Indonesia.
Canet led every lap from pole position to take the win over championship leader Ai Ogura, which puts the Spaniard up to third in the championship after a superior display.
Poleman Canet got away well from the start, but MT Helmets’ Ogura got the jump from the clean side of the grid in third to take the lead into Turn 1.
An incident in the opening corner with reigning Moto3 champion Jaume Masia and RW Racing’s Zonta van den Goorbergh started a chaotic first lap, while Turn 10 saw Somkiat Chantra pull out with an injury after Fermin Aldeguer ran over his foot, rookie Senna Agius crash and Tony Arbolino run wide.
Amidst the early chaos, Canet was able to retake the lead ahead of Ogura, with SpeedUp’s Alonso Lopez also finding his way through on the championship leader to get up to second.
Aspar’s Jake Dixon looked to be struggling in the early stages of the race and crashed out of fifth, almost certainly putting an end to any small hopes of a championship bid despite rejoining.
Aldeguer had some early pace and was able to move ahead of Ogura into third and was looking to chase after his teammate Lopez for second.
Aldeguer was able to get on terms with his stablemate, but ran wide and lost momentum rejoining behind American Racing’s Joe Roberts in ninth.
Ogura kept a steady pace while closing in on the leading SpeedUp bike of Lopez, and a block pass allowed the Japanese rider to claim second.
Sergio Garcia looked to be having a decent weekend after losing his championship lead, but a crash out of 10th put an end to his race, which could compromise his Moto2 title chances.
The battle for the final podium place was heating up in the final stages, with Lopez leading Gresini’s Manuel Gonzalez, teammate Aldegeur and IntactGP’s Darryn Binder onto the last lap.
A pass from Aldeguer on Gonzalez allowed Lopez to take advantage and keep his podium position over the line. Lopez finished the race seven seconds behind eventual race winner Canet, and Ogura came home in second.
Aldeguer was able to take fourth on the final lap ahead of Binder who finished a season’s best fifth place.
Roberts took sixth ahead of Aspar’s Izan Guevara in seventh, while MarcVDS’ Arbolino recovered from his first lap off to take eighth.
Gonzalez was forced off the track by Aldeguer on the final lap and could only manage ninth, as KTM Ajo’s Deniz Oncu rounded out the top 10.
American Racing’s Marcos Ramirez took 11th narrowly ahead of RW Racing’s Barry Baltus in 12th.
Last weekend’s race winner Celestino Vietti recovered after running wide at Turn 16 to finish 13th, ahead of Yamaha Mastercamp’s Jeremy Alcoba in 14th and Gresini’s Albert Arenas came home in 15th.
