Jake Dixon held off Aron Canet to claim his second victory of the 2023 Moto2 World Championship season at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, to take a sizeable chunk out of Pedro Acosta’ series lead.

The 2018 BSB runner-up left it late to make his move on Aron Canet before resisting the Spaniard to the chequered flag to secure a well-earned 25 points, a maximum haul sweetened by modest results for Acosta and Tony Arbolino ahead of him in the standings.

The GasGas Aspar rider started from pole position and led early on but after being overtaken on lap two, proceeded spend much of the 23 lap encounter shadowing a frisky battle ahead of him between Manuel Gonzalez, Canet and Acosta before manoeuvring himself into position in the closing stages.

- 2023 Moto2 World Championship Standings -

Indeed, it was the Gonzalez and Canet that made the early running initially out-front once they’d worked their way past Dixon, the pair swapping the lead in favour of the latter on lap ten.

By this time Acosta, from ninth on the grid, had pulled himself into the lead fight, picking off Dixon for third and Gonzalez for second in consecutive laps as the race reached its half-way mark.

The Red Bull KTM Ajo rider maintained his tempo with eight laps to go as he relieved Canet of the lead, sparking an entertaining tussle between the Spaniard duo for the ensuing laps. As the race reached its crescendo, Canet upped the ante with four laps remaining courtesy of a firm overtake that pulled Dixon through with him into second place.

It was Dixon though with momentum on his side, quickly following up his pass on Acosta with a strike on Canet for first place with four laps remaining into the Turn 10 left-hander.

It was an advantage he’d hold firm into the final lap and onto the chequered flag, Dixon keeping Canet at arm’s length to secure a welcome home win for his GasGas Aspar team. 

A KTM Ajo bike joined them on the podium but it was Albert Arenas, rather than Acosta, joining Dixon and Canet on the podium after Acosta was thumped wide with three laps remaining by Alonso Lopez at Turn 1, demoting him to sixth at the flag behind fourth place Sergio Garcia and Gonzalez.

He was however well clear of Tony Arbolino, whose tough weekend concluded down in 17th place on the Marc VDS Racing bike. It means Acosta increases his lead while Arbolino has Dixon for closer company, just 22 points between the top two and the latter two.

Elsewhere, Sam Lowes brought it home in ninth position for more solid points, while Rory Skinner was…… 23rd!