What a race we saw in Moto2, with Jaked Dixon confirming victory at Silverstone, but it wasn’t an easy road to get there. Early on, the Briton managed to get into second place, but to beat Arón Canet he had to give everything and confirmed the overtake at the start of the final lap.
The start went well for pole position holder Ai Ogura, with Celestino Vietti gaining two positions, from fourth to second – while Arón Canet was third, ahead of Jake Dixon and Joe Roberts. Sergio García, the championship leader, had a difficult start and was far behind.
Canet, however, wasted no time and climbed to first place, while Dixon was already third, beating Vietti. Diogo Moreira, third at the start, was fifth.
If the race was going well for Canet, with a lead of more than 0.5s over Dixon, the same could not be said for Jaume Masiá, who crashed at turn 14.
Roberts, meanwhile, was the next to overtake Ogura, who fell to fourth, but the Japanese driver fought back shortly afterwards and regained third place. Canet was already 0.946s ahead of the home man, Dixon.
Meanwhile, another casualty in the race, this time Tony Arbolino, at turn six, when he was sixth… and the crashes didn’t stop there: Xavier Cardelus crashed, Somkiat Chantra too, as did Moreira and Filip Salac. Of these, only Arbolino re-entered the track.
T6 disaster for @TonyArbolino 💥
— MotoGP™🏁 (@MotoGP) August 4, 2024
The Italian ran off and crashed on the gravel 💔#BritishGP 🇬🇧 pic.twitter.com/JrGpKFpgJp
On the rise was Albert Arenas, already in third, with Ogura and Manuel González in fourth and fifth respectively.
Arbolino ended up dropping out of the race for good shortly afterwards, while the casualties continued to mount: Roberts was the next to crash. González was also improving little by little and he got close to Arenas and overtook him.
With six laps to go, Canet was still leading but Dixon was very close: 0.164s separated them, and Dixon certainly didn’t want to miss out on a home win! González was more than 7s off the pace and was virtually out of the running for victory.
Arenas was now fifth after being passed once again, now by Darryn Binder; García was already sixth. Fermín Aldeguer was having a race to forget and was 15th.
With three laps to go, García was in the top three. Canet led by .192s over Dixon.
The fight for third place was hotting up, with Vietti 0.047s behind García. Dixon, in front, wasn’t managing to close the slight gap to Canet, but a mistake – as Jorge Martín said today – could be the difference between victory and second place.
Crazy! On the finishing straight, at the start of the last lap, Dixon confirmed the overtake on Canet and could make history! Vietti was already third.
And in the end Dixon, there he is! He won his home race and joined a select group of drivers to win their home GP at Silverstone, something that last happened in 2015 with Danny Kent!