Pedro Acosta has taken another five-point chunk out of Tony Arbolino's lead in the 2023 Moto2 World Championship standings as he dominates at the Sachsenring to lead home his title rival and Jake Dixon.

Another convincing performance by the 19-year old that will serve to give his KTM employers an even bigger headache over how to manage his immediate future, Acosta was never challenged from from lap two to win by more than three seconds.

Though he had no answer to Acosta, Arbolino minimised the damage to his championship advantage in second, rebuffing the late attentions of Dixon, who notched up a ninth career Moto2 podium in third place.

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Acosta sends a message to Arbolino, KTM

Fresh from his dominant win at Mugello only a week earlier, Acosta came into the German event with his sights set firmly on necessary back-to-back successes in his efforts to negate the points lost in his crash out of the French Moto2.

Getting the job done on Saturday to secure pole position, while Acosta was beaten into the first turn by Arbolino starting alongside him, an immediate pounce on the Italian coming into the penultimate corner saw him complete lap one in front.

From here Acosta wouldn't be bothered again, the Spaniard pulling Arbolino along with him for a time before also gapping the Marc VDS rider.

With Arbolino slipping into the clutches of Dixon behind, Acosta eased his advantage out to more than three seconds to reel off the final laps comfortably, crossing the line to complete his fourth win of the season.

With Acosta home and dry, attention instead turned to a simmering feud for second as Dixon - having slipped to fifth initially - called upon his typical late race pace to steadily reel in Arbolino ahead.

Having had his path back to third smoothed by a crash ahead of Aron Canet, Dixon clawed himself onto the back of the Kalex ahead but despite applying the pressure through the final couple of laps, he couldn't find a way through for what would have been a personal best result of second.

Instead it is a ninth podium for Dixon - all third place results - in a performance that sees him rise from seventh to fourth overall, just three points shy of Alonso Lopez in third.

Second for Arbolino - his sixth podium in seven races - means he retains a comfortable championship advantage of 15 points over Acosta heading to Round 8 of the season at Assen.

Well adrift of the lead fight, Somkiat Chantra worked his way up the order for a season's best finish of fourth place on the IDEMITSU Honda Team Asia bike, with Lopez settling for fifth having run as high as third early on.

Manuel Gonzalez was another keen mover through the field as he landed a sixth place finish, just ahead of Sam Lowes, who endured a steady afternoon in seventh position. Fermin Aldeguer, Albert Arenas and Celestino Vietti completed the top ten, with the final points' paying positions going the way of Sergio Garcia, Barry Baltus, Filip Salac, Ai Ogura and Dennis Foggia.

Beyond Canet, other riders failing to finish included Joe Roberts, who crashed out late on, and 2022 Moto3 champ Izan Guevara, while Darryn Binder was left to curse his luck after being eliminated at the first corner for the second race in succession.

The South African was the innocent party, along with the rider who was forced into him, Bo Bendsneyder, the Dutchman having been struck by an errant Jeremy Alcoba to force him into a high-side.

German Moto2, Sachsenring | RACE RESULTS