Ai Ogura took victory in a dramatic Moto2 Catalunya Grand Prix, the Japanese winning for the first time with Boscoscuro.

It was Ogura’s MT Helmets MSI teammate, Sergio Garcia, who made the holeshot, but he only led for two-and-a-half laps. Fermin Aldeguer had gone backwards to fourth at the start, but was able to come through to second place by lap three, and then he passed Garcia for the lead at turn 10 on that same lap.

Aldeguer tried to break immediately, and had a second over Garcia by lap eight. Five laps later, though, and Garcia was back on Aldeguer’s rear wheel.

A pass from Garcia looked imminent, when Aldeguer picked up a long-lap penalty for track limits. He then crashed when serving the penalty.

That put Garcia in the lead, and the immediate assumption was that the win was his to lose, but by now Ai Ogura - who started 10th, rose to third off the line, then dropped to sixth before getting back into the podium fight - was less than two seconds behind.

Not only that, but the #79 had much better pace, over half-a-second faster than Garcia.

Ogura, with better grip, passed Garcia at turn one on lap 18, and went unchallenged to the flag for his first win since switching to MT Helmets MSI from Honda Team Asia and from Kalex to Boscoscuro.

Garcia took second place in an MT Helmets MSI 1-2, ahead of Jake Dixon, who took his first podium and first points of 2024 in third place.

Jeremy Alcoba put on a late charge - another to conserve his tyres better than those around him - to take his best Moto2 finish of fourth place, and Senna Agius also took a personal best finish of fifth. Albert Arenas was sixth, ahead of Marcos Ramirez and Alonso Lopez, the latter being the rider who perhaps managed his tyres the worst. Joe Roberts was ninth after a long-lap penalty, and Tony Arbolino was docked positions after the race for not serving a long-lap penalty he was issued in the final three laps and rounded out the top 10.

The Moto2 field was the largest its been all year in Barcelona with 32 starters. Only 23 finished, though, with KTM Ajo’s Celestino Vietti, Bo Bendsneyder’s replacement at GasUp Daniel Munoz, Portugal winner Aron Canet, and title favourite Fermin Aldeguer all among the fallers.

After the race, Marcos Ramirez was disqualified for using one of the tyres of his American Racing teammate, Joe Roberts. That promoted Forward's Jorge Navarro into the top 10, and gave Mario Aji the final point in 15th.