Moto2™ Race Highlights 😮 | 2024 #JapaneseGP

A revs rise here in the land of the rising sun and it's lights out of a racing Emoto 2 here in Motegi. A great start from middle of that front row by Zonta, Van den Goorberg, but it's Jake Dixon who will get a drop on the field going into turn 1. Brilliant start by CFMoto, Aspar, teammate Ethan Guevara, who started 5th, although he has contact there with Van den Goorberg being aggressive through the first corner. And that's broken up the field mid-pack, the big loser there was Celica de Vieche, Guevara plummeting back through the field. Ayakura was up into 2nd place there until Alonso Lopez came in. Looks like spots of rain on the camera lens to me. This race might get stopped very soon. Yeah, it's raining going through turns 3 and 4. We saw Kinnett almost launch himself to the moon as he got the power on. Well, we were not expecting rain here today. There was nothing to suggest there was rain. We have got the rain flags out then here on the brakes into turn 5. This shower has come out of absolutely nowhere. It's anywhere. They're going to have to stop this race here. No flag-to-flag rules in Moto2. Alonso Lopez has taken the lead in the race. It's pouring down out of turn 7. Yeah, we're going to get the red flag shortly. So many riders have had their hands up. The left-hander Dixon now back at the front of this Grand Prix. He waves his hand, so does Alonso Lopez in 2nd place. Race direction, I'm not quite sure, they just have. It has been red flagged. We had to have a halt to that race. It had started to bucket down. Well, all the weather forecast predicted a cloudy, a grey overcast race day here, but a bone-dry race day. And what was it? Seconds after lights out, in the first time the riders peeled through turn 3 and 4, the rain had started to bucket down. The new race then will be over the shortened two-thirds distance down to 12 laps. So it will be a restarted 12-lap Grand Prix of Japan in Moto2. Number 75, former Moto3 World Champion Arenas, will have to start this 12-lap Grand Prix of Japan from pit lane. It's the Japanese Grand Prix, take 2 in 2024. It's lights out and we're racing here in Moto2 in Motegi. Great start again from pole position, once again by Jake Dixon. Likewise by his teammate, Ethan Aguayo-Guevara, who's going around the outside this time around. He's in a little bit too hot. What about Aguayo-Guevara, who's getting absolutely swallowed here. A tentative, conservative, as you'd expect, is Aguayo-Guevara, and he is plummeting on the 79 bike. So is Van den Goorberg. We saw a slick front. Is he also on a slick rear? Either way, he's dropping down the order. He's just got to stay with this and try and let the track conditions come to him. But it's an Aspire 1-2 out front. It's Dixon from Guevara. Yeah, Guevara made another superb start. Oh! That was Darren Binder. Sideway, speedway style on the kerb coming out of Turn 4. It looks spectacular, but it's heart-in-the-mouth action for the South Africans as they bunch up now on the brakes further down into Turn 5. Dixon it is that leads from his Aspire teammate, Guevara. Kinet started third. He's in that third place right now. Head of Alonso Lopez, who's gone up fourth place from eighth to fourth. Aguayo-Guevara in 14th position. He's behind his teammate, Sergio Garcia. Just check the lap times between Dixon, who's on the full wets, and your race leader, and Aguero on the full slicks. Dixon at 158.896. Aguero in the 57s. He must have exceeded track limits there, because that lap was not registered as the fastest lap of the race. But a 57.6 from Aguero. He is the only rider in those 157s. It looks like at the moment, if it does not rain further, as now he pounces an Arvalino into Turn 3. Ai Aguero might have made the perfect call here. As he called this, absolutely spot on. What a decision it was. What a tough call it was. But at the moment, he has nailed it. He'll win this race by a mile if it doesn't rain again. He's just got so much more grip on those dry tyres. Officially the fastest lap of the race last time around was set by Jeremy Alcoba. He is also on slicks. Look at this now. Making light work of Guevara. He just starts checking out on the number 28. Vietti is going to be a sitting duck now. Just look at the corner speed. He's going to potentially ride around the outside of Vietti. Just look at the difference between the Pirelli rain tyres on Vietti's KTM i-Machine. And now Aguero into Turn 9 he goes. And Ai Aguero. Vietti squeezes him, pinches his nose going through Turn 9. But Ai Aguero, what a call this has been so far. All he has to do here is just stay patient. Just make the moves when he can. He doesn't have to take too many risks at this stage. Although he does spot the gap on Celestino Vietti. He's got so much more grip as Vietti almost loops it. Coming out of Turn 10. Just make the moves when you can. You've got 10 laps to go and so much more grip. Look at him cruising past Lopez. A warning sign there. Keep off the white lines. Keep off the kerbs. They're damp as hell as we saw Vietti nearly fire himself into orbit. Ai Aguero. This is one of the biggest calls of the season. And he took the risk. He backed himself. And it is paying off handsomely here. Because he's going to blitz by Jake Dixon. This is not even a contest right now. With only slick tyres. Ai Aguero fires himself in front of this Grand Prix. He was two seconds faster than Jake Dixon on that last lap. Manu Gonzalez fires his way towards the front as well. Gonzalez has got brilliant pace. He was doing low 1.55s. Now on the inside of Binder going through the 1.30r corner. This is pushing now Gonzalez firmly into the top six battle. Through we go into final sector. Jake Dixon. Well, he would have seen. He's been told on his dashboard that Aguero's got... He doesn't know that now. He would have known that. He got a right old rude awakening right here down the start-finish straight. When Aguero blitzed him. Gonzalez is going to do the same. This is no contest. This is a mismatch here in Motegi. Aguero with a 1.53.838. He was nearly five seconds faster than Dixon in second place. This is a three-rider scrap for the final place on the podium. Salah, Alcoba and Van den Goorberg. That trio all on slick tyres. Gonzalez has got the greater grip by the looks of it. Perhaps the greater will to win this Grand Prix. Aguero surely must have one mind and one thought on the World Championship. Particularly with the 18 now carving around the outside of him. Just love the clear visor of Manu Gonzalez staring into the whites of his eyes as he now stares into the lead here of this Japanese Grand Prix. He has picked his move. He's made the move at turn nine. He has threatened the speed to break away from Aguero. What does the Japanese rider do there now in response? How much risk will he take to try and win his home round for the second time in three years? Or will he just start thinking, OK, Gonzalez, we know he's not a championship threat. Let's just take the 20 points and move on to Australia. At the moment, it looks like Aguero is coming all in for the win. What a decision it was to run the Prodigy slick tyres when the race was restarted after a nod of the head. The great Grazini-Gonzalez gamble pays off big time here in Motegi as Manu Gonzalez takes his first ever Moto2 victory here in the Grand Prix of Japan. He takes the checkered flag. 2.5 seconds clear of Aguero. What a ride that was to take second place. Massive for the championship. And what a sight that is as well. Iko Kato, a son of 2001 250cc world champion Daijiro Kato. What a superstar Daijiro was in Japan. His son waves the checkered flag.