Honda Team Asia Take Amazing One-Two And Championship Lead
Red Bull Ring - SpielbergAi Ogura (IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia) and Somkiat Chantra (IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia) rode an historic Austrian Grand Prix, taking a first-ever one-two for the Honda-backed team.
The result triggered huge and well-deserved celebrations inside the IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia garage, where the team has worked so hard over the years to bring Asian riders back to the top of Grand Prix racing.
Ogura’s second career victory and his second of the year, following his win in May’s Spanish GP at Jerez, moved him into the World Championship lead, with 13 races ridden and seven remaining. He now leads the series by a single point from Augusto Fernandez (Red Bull KTM Ajo), winner of the last three races.
Ogura led the race from pole position, the second pole of his Moto2 career, but lost the lead to Alonso Lopez (CAG Speed Up) for a few laps, before he came back strongly and led again. From there the 21-year-old from Saitama rode an amazing race, pushing hard and breaking away from the pack. At the same time Chantra was also riding a great race, moving into second place.
The pair opened a useful gap on the chasing pack, until title hopeful Celestino Vietti (Mooney VR46 Racing Team) closed on Chantra, only to slide off while building an attack on the 23-year-old Thai rider.
Although the IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia crew signalled to Chantra to stay second, allowing Ogura to take the points lead, Chantra attacked and took the lead on the penultimate corner of the final lap. Ogura immediately counter-attacked at the final corner, the pair just millimetres apart and crossing the line within 0.173 seconds of each other.
Such was their pace that third-placed Jake Dixon (Zinia GASGAS Aspar Team) finished 7.854 seconds behind Ogura. This was the Briton’s third consecutive podium result.
Dixon had to work hard for it too, winning a duel with rookie Pedro Acosta (Red Bull Ajo), who finished just ahead of previous points leader Fernandez and Aron Canet (Flexbox HP40).
Lopez finally finished seventh, more than three seconds further back. The Moto2 top ten was completed by Marcel Schrotter (Liqui Moly Intact GP), Albert Arenas (Zinia GASGAS Aspar Team) and Jeremy Alcoba (Liqui Moly Intact GP).
Moto2 now heads to Italy for the San Marino Grand Prix, then to Spain for the Aragon GP. The 16th stop for the championship is the Japanese GP at Twin Ring Motegi, the first since 2019.
It’s a perfect day for me. I'm delighted about this victory. But it wasn't a comfortable race, despite being in front almost all of the race, with a good pace. Somkiat was behind, pushing me. He tried to overtake me on the last lap, but I managed well to finish first. From CEV, we've been riding together, and I knew he could try it. Now I'm the leader of the championship. It's nice, but for me, this victory is more important than leading the championship. Now, it's time to celebrate it!
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I'm so happy about this second position. I did my maximum. I want to thank my team for the support and for preparing a perfect bike that allowed me to enjoy this race so much. I had Ai in front, and I tried to catch him lap by lap. When I was close I made a mistake every time, and I needed to restart the catch-up again. On the last lap, I was so close and I tried to overtake him, but I went wide, and he overtook me again. To be both on the podium is fantastic; we've already done this Argentina, but first and second is the maximum.
