Nagashima storms to dramatic win

Doha: Japanese rider Tetsuta Nagashima (Red Bull KTM Ajo) yesterday produced a scintillating fight under lights to win the new season’s first Moto2 race where five top spots were clinched on a Kalex bike. 

The 27-year-old rider edged Italy’s Lorenzo Baldassarri (Flexbox HP 40) to the top spot, clinching the 20-lap race in a time of 40’00.192 at the imposing Losail International Circuit. Baldassarri, the 2019 Qatar GP winner, was +1.347 seconds behind on the timesheets.

Italy’s Enea Bastianini (Italtrans Racing Team) was not too far behind as he claimed the third place on the podium, second of his career.

Nagashima dedicated his heroic win to compatriot Shoya Tomizawa who was killed during a race in San Marino in 2010.

Tomizawa, who has a plaque raised in his memory inside one of the rider passages at Losail International Circuit, won the first ever Moto2 race held at the same venue.

Nagashima is the first Japanese rider to win a Moto2 race after Tomizawa.

“Shoya was like a brother to me because when I started racing we were always together,” Nagashima said after the race. “He taught me a lot. I can’t believe that my first victory is in the same place. It’s unbelievable,” he added.

Nagashima started from 14th spot and ended up as a winner. 

“My feelings are just like a dream, I am in a dream,” Nagashima said with a smile. “Yesterday in qualifying I made a small mistake and my grid position was not perfect. Then from the beginning I had to push harder, harder, harder but I thought nothing like this. The team pushed me, as last year I was close to the podium but I never got there, so I forgot everything and pushed to win or crash.

“Starting from 14th position and I had to overtake a lot of riders. In the beginning it was a little bit difficult to overtake as every rider was pushing, pushing, pushing, so I had to overtake them and lost some speed, but finally at the end it was okay,” 

“The last three or four laps I don’t remember very well! When I went to the top I felt like I didn’t know where to brake, I forgot my braking points and everything.

“But the last two laps were amazing, my feeling was that I was pushing but I never felt like I was going to crash. I was very comfortable for the last two laps. Especially the last lap, I saw that when Shoya won the race he felt like this, so I feel the same,” he told www.crashnet.com website.

Luca Marini (SKY Racing Team VR46) got off to a flyer as the lights went out for Moto2 in 2020 from the middle of the front row, with both the Italian and compatriot Bastianini getting the better of pole-sitter Joe Roberts (American Racing) into Turn 1. Jorge Martin (Red Bull KTM Ajo) launched very well from P8 on the grid to tuck himself onto the tailpipes of Roberts, with Bastianini getting the better of Marini on Lap 1 to lead the intermediate class race over the line.

As the pack settled, Marini managed to get back past Bastianini to hold P1 again, but it wasn’t such a successful start for a pre-Championship start favourite. Augusto Fernandez (EG 0,0 Marc VDS) crashed out at Turn 6 after contact with Stefano Manzi (MV Agusta Forward Racing) on Lap 3, leaving the reigning World Champion team with zero points from Round 1.

Back at the front, Marini and Roberts were now one and two, with Martin sitting in close pursuit. Lap 6 saw Roberts go for an overtake at Turn 1 but the American ran wide, handing the position back to Marini as 1.5 seconds split the top eight heading onto Lap 8, with Bastianini, Lorenzo Baldassarri (FlexBox HP 40), Xavi Vierge (Petronas Sprinta Racing), Marco Bezzecchi (SKY Racing Team VR46) and Warm Up pacesetter Nagashima setting similar lap times. 

However, Marini then started to stretch the field, taking just under half a second out of second place Roberts on Lap 9 and 10 and on Lap 11, the gap was up to 0.9 seconds.

On Lap 12, the gap was back down to six tenths. An important thing to start remembering was Roberts’ front tyre choice – the American on the harder option than the riders around him, with Nagashima starting to look a serious threat in P5 having gone over half a second quicker than Marini on Lap 12. With eight to go the Japanese man was up to P4 past Bastianini and sat just over a second behind race leader Marini, the Moto2 race in Qatar was shaping up incredibly nicely as the battle entered the final seven laps.

A certain man on a Beta Tools Speed Up bike was starting to reel the leaders in too. Jorge Navarro – just as he did for much of 2019 – was coming into his own on used tyres and with little over five laps remaining, a mistake from Marini allowed the leading six to bunch up and Roberts led, before Bastianini snatched the baton with five laps remaining. It looked like it was game over for Marini, his pace dropped off a cliff and with four to go, the leading four were Baldassarri, Bastianini, Roberts and Nagashima. 

With four laps remaining, Nagashima was looking ominous in his pursuit to the front. The Ajo-backed rider picked off Roberts for P3 before taking control of the race at Turn 2 with three to go – and immediately Nagashima was creeping away.

The number 45 grabbed a 0.3 lead as the race entered the final two laps, with the battle for the remaining podium places bubbling up nicely. Remy Gardner (Onexox TKKR SAG Team) was latching onto the back of Navarro as five riders scrapped it out behind Nagashima, who – by the time he’d clocked onto the final lap – was over a second clear. 

Simply stunning latter race pace for the Japanese man and Nagashima would make no mistake on the final lap to take an emotional first Grand Prix victory, 10 years since Tomizawa, who was “like a brother” to Nagashima, made history in 2010. 

Baldassarri and Bastianini held off the challenge to pick up podiums at the opening round, with Roberts claiming his career-best finish in P4 – a fantastic weekend for the American despite missing out on a podium by a 10th.