Moto2: How Tetsuta Nagashima took an Emotional Maiden Victory

Red Bull KTM AJO rider Tetsuta Nagashima stunned the Moto2 field in the opening round of the 2020 season, taking his maiden Moto2 victory in his debut with the team. It was an emotional victory for the Japanese rider, ten-years earlier his good friend, the late Shoya Tomizawa, stood on the top step as the first-ever Moto2 winner.

The opening race of the 2020 season was set to be a belter, with once again, the Moto2 field looking as close as ever. History was made in the intermediate class after American Joe Roberts backed up his impressive Friday form by taking his first Moto2 class pole position and America’s first in the intermediate class since Kenny Noyes back in 2010.

As the lights went out to kick off the 2020 season, it was the two Italians of Sky VR46’s Luca Marini and Italtrans’ Enea Bastianini who made the perfect launch, both clearing Joe Roberts’ American Racing Team Kalex on the run into turn one.

Red Bull KTM Ajo’s Jorge Martin also made a bright start on board the Kalex, as the title favourite slotted himself into fourth at the end of the opening lap.

As the pack settled down, Augusto Fernandez started to claw his way through the pack after the multiple Moto2 race winner was left to start the Grand Prix in a lowly twelfth position. However, contact with MV Agusta’s Stefano Manzi into turn six saw the Spaniard crash out of the opening round of the season.

The big question mark hanging over the Moto2 riders was the front tyre life and as we got deeper into the season opener, it was apparent that riders were starting to struggle with the wear on what is a very front tyre demanding circuit.

Back at the front, the young American had muscled his way back into podium contention, slotting himself into second position, behind Luca Marini.

This caught out Luca Marini who after being in the podium fight for the opening fifteen laps, started overheating his front tyre and quickly dropped outside of the top ten by the penultimate lap.

With the leading group starting to bunch up, Tetsuta Nagashima started making his move, passing Joe Roberts on lap seventeen to move into the podium positions and began to hunt down Lorenzo Baldassari. Whilst this was happening, the Speed Up of Jorge Navarro also found some pace, lapping just shy of half a second quicker than the leading riders, at the same time, fellow Speed Up rider Aron Canet also showed strong late pace.

The sudden surge of pace, however, was short-lived with Navarro quickly running out of tyres to launch an attack on the podium trio, ultimately leaving the Spaniard to settle for sixth position.

Back at the front, it was Nagashima’s turn to lead the pack as lap eighteen got underway. From there on in, Nagashima didn’t look back and opened a healthy 1.2-second advantage over the chasing pack giving him his maiden Moto2 victory under the floodlights in Qatar.

The battle for second was tightening up with Lorenzo Baldassari and Enea Bastianini finding themselves locked together once again. Ultimately, the battle ended with the 2019 race winner Baldassarri getting the better of former Moto3 race winner, Bastiainini.

Joe Roberts took a seriously impressive fourth, however, will be slightly disappointed to miss out on his debut Moto2 podium by 0.131 seconds.

Remy Gardner completed the top five after a strong showing from the Australian whilst Navarro rounded out the top six.

Marcel Schrotter had a quiet race to seventh, getting the better of Moto2 rookie Aron Canet on the final lap. Xavi Vierge was ninth behind the former Moto3 title contender whilst veteran Tom Luthi took the final position inside the top ten.

Dutchman Bo Bendsneyder came home eleventh with Sky VR46’s Marco Bezzecchi leading Fabio Di Giannantonio, Jake Dixon, who after a final corner divebomb on early leader Luca Marini grabbed fourteenth. The contact between the two riders forced Marini to part ways with his Sky VR46 Kalex meaning Valentino Rossi’s half brother leaves Qatar empty-handed. Fellow VR46 academy rider Stefano Manzi claimed the final World Championship point of the 2020 season opener.

Rookie Marcos Ramirez was involved in an early crash with Somkiat Chantra whilst fellow rookie Kasma Daniel also took an early departure from his debut Moto2 Grand Prix.

With Qatar complete, the next destination of the Moto2 World Championship is unknown with the ongoing Coronavirus outbreak.

Moto2 Qatar GP Classification

[table id=45 /]

On paper, America is next up, however, with travel restrictions in place across Europe (mainland Italy being the major country) the second round of the season could be in serious doubt.

What is for certain, is that new Red Bull KTM Ajo rider Tetsuta Nagashima leads the Moto2 pack, wherever they may go, as World Championship leader.