The first Moto2 winner of the season has been found, and in a race that will certainly be remembered by many, with Alonso López taking the win and proving very strong in his defence of the top spot despite pressure from Barry Baltus, who thus achieved the first podium of his career in the World Championship.
Áron Canet started from first place on the grid after running 1:56.788s in qualifying on Saturday and was joined on the front row by Alonso López and Albert Arenas. It was 22ºC in Losail and everything looked set for the start of the first Moto2 race of the year, just like in Moto3, also with Pirelli.
Canet got off to a bad start and dropped to eighth, with López moving into the lead under the gaze of Manuel González and Arenas. Canet recovered three positions and made it to second, while Tony Arbolino made it to the podium. In the winter, Arenas dropped to fifth, and Canet was already fourth.
🚦LIGHTS OUT in #Moto2! 🚦@AlonsoLopez_21 leads into T1 as Canet plummets down the field 🔥#QatarGP 🇶🇦 pic.twitter.com/JadQIUj91d
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) March 10, 2024
With two laps completed, López was leading by 0.104s over Canet, who had just overtaken González and… He didn’t stop there: shortly afterwards, on the fourth sector of the third lap, Canet returned to his starting position and was the new leader and the author of the best lap so far in 1:57.661s.
On the sixth lap, López went on the attack and moved into the lead, but the changes didn’t stop there, as González also climbed up the rankings to second. Canet went from first to third in no time.
On the rise was Ai Ogura, now fourth, at a stage in the race when another Japanese rider crashed and then “opened up” the range of riders to go down, Ayumu Sasaki.
Arbolino seemed to be in trouble and after being on the podium, he was losing positions and was now tenth. Canet, higher up in third, was slowing down but remained in third while López slightly increased the gap to González, now 0.246s.
Barry Baltus set about attacking the podium places on the ninth lap and even managed to overtake Canet to take third place. Arbolino continued his downward trend and was now 13th.
With ten laps completed, that was the top ten:
On the following lap, after taking the lead, López was “shaking” at the minimal gap to González, around 0.008s, but soon afterwards González was beaten by Baltus, who took second place. López made up ground but couldn’t get much away and was 0.139s behind the Belgian.
Out of the points was Arbolino in 18th, at a stage when Sergio García had already beaten his teammate Ogura into fourth.
The Spaniard was on the rise and was threatening González’s place, with the overtake happening shortly afterwards and García was now in the podium places and the “nightmare” didn’t end there, as the #18 was also beaten by Ogura.
Baltus tried, tried and tried, but was unable to completely close the gap to López, who remained 0.129s ahead of his opponent, with the gap falling to less than a tenth several times. García was third at 0.546s, and Ogura was further back at 1.175s.
With three laps to go, that was the top five:
Canet, sixth at the time, was also struggling and dropped to ninth, while in the opposite direction was Marcos Ramírez, now sixth ahead of his OnlyFans American Racing Team team-mate Joe Roberts.
Two laps to go and it was all to play for, with López 0.102s behind Baltus. García was third at 0.710s. Going into the final lap, the gap was 0.056s.
The race finished unchanged shortly afterwards and López confirmed his victory, with Baltus taking his first career podium. García was third.