Ai came, Ai saw, Ai conquered. Having claimed a P2 finish in a red-flagged Moto2™ PT Grand Prix of Thailand race, Ai Ogura (MT Helmets – MSI) is the 2024 Moto2™ World Champion! More here:
The Japanese star is the first from his country to win the World Championship since Hiroshi Aoyama in 2009, and Ogura becomes the first former IDEMITSU Asia Talent Cup rider to win a Grand Prix title.
Race winner Aron Canet(Fantic Racing) did all he could to try to put the celebrations on ice in Thailand, as the Spaniard strengthens his grip on the silver medal with win number three of 2024. Meanwhile, Marcos Ramirez (OnlyFans American Racing Team) finished P3 to bag his first rostrum of the season.
Ogura got away well from pole position to slot into the lead ahead of Canet at Turn 1 before Canet pounced at Turn 3. Ogura was back in the lead at Turn 4 though as Turn 5 saw two key contenders go down. Fermin Aldeguer (Beta Tools SpeedUp) crashed and took out the luckless Tony Arbolino (Elf Marc VDS Racing Team), as the fast-starting Alonso Lopez (Beta Tools SpeedUp) sent it up the inside of Diogo Moreira (Italtrans Racing Team) and Ogura as the Championship leader was shuffled down to P7.
On Lap 3, Canet led from Ramirez and Jake Dixon (CFMOTO Inde Aspar Team), with Lopez back down to P12 having run wide at Turn 5 a lap earlier. Ogura was now P6 behind Darryn Binder (Liqui Moly Husqvarna Intact GP) and Moreira.
After a hectic start, the race settled down. The top six – Canet to Ogura – were covered by 1.7s with 16 laps to go, as Ogura then began to make moves. His first one was to set the fastest lap of the race, and his second was to aggressively pass Binder down at Turn 3. Contact was made, Binder was forced to run wide, as Ogura then set his sights on Dixon and Moreira.
With 16 laps to go, Dixon was picked off for P4 as Ogura stood in a Championship clinching position. Moreira was then demoted to P4 on Lap 9 of 22 as Ogura climbed to P3 and set another fastest lap of the race. The gap to Ramirez and Canet? 1.6s.
After a couple of laps, Ogura was right on the coattails of Ramirez. And with nine laps to go, at Turn 3, the #79 used the cutback to great effect to overtake Ramirez. That was now P2 for Ogura, who had 0.9s to make up if he wanted to attack race leader Canet.
That was soon 1.6s though as light rain began to fall in Buriram! Understandably, Ogura was cautious but with six laps to go, the rain wasn’t heavy enough for any kind of stoppage to come into play. Canet, meanwhile, slammed in his personal best lap of the race to edge his advantage up to two seconds.
With two to go, Canet was 3.6s clear of Ogura who in turn was a second ahead of Ramirez and then, the red flags were shown. Due to weather conditions and with 20 of 22 laps completed (over 2/3rds), Ai Ogura was crowned 2024 Moto2™ World Champion.
The red flags came out at the right time for Ramirez as home hero Somkiat Chantra(IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia) was on course to get himself into the podium picture, but the returning Thai rider had to settle for P4. Nonetheless, that was some effort from Chantra. Moreira rounded out the top five in a brilliant battle that included sixth place Izan Guevara (CFMOTO Inde Aspar Team), seventh place Dixon, eighth place Albert Arenas (Gresini Moto2™) and ninth place Manuel Gonzalez (Gresini Moto2™).
Deniz Öncü (Red Bull KTM Ajo) completed the top 10 in Thailand, with Lopez settling for P11 after being in the podium fight before a mistake. Sergio Garcia’s (MT Helmets – MSI) title hopes are now ended as the Spaniard ends the Thai GP in P12, with Ayumu Sasaki (Yamaha VR46 Master Camp Team), Filip Salač (Elf Marc VDS Racing Team) and replacement rider Jorge Navarro (OnlyFans American Racing Team) the final points scorers.
And so, with two races to spare, a golden year sees #GoldenAi crowned a World Champion for the first time. The pressure will be off heading to Malaysia next weekend as we now focus on the race for second place, and it’s Canet who’s now in pole position for the silver medal after a classy third win of the season.
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