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.
