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Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/1469992
anticipated. Binder was a solid eighth, ahead of Oliveira. Alex Marquez (LCR Honda) rescued 10th on an otherwise disastrous day for Honda from 25th on the grid. Now at 147 points, Quar- tararo's lead opens up to 22 points over Espargaro (125) with Bastianini (94) and Zarco (91) now some way back. Moto2 The 22-lap race was a thriller. At first Joe Roberts (Italtrans Kalex) appeared to defy logic in an outing which demanded caution and careful tire management. The American grabbed the early initiative, building up a 2.2-sec- ond lead by half-race distance. But a crash at turn five on lap 11 ended the American's run of scoring points in every race this year. That left Celestino Vietti (VR46 Kalex) to contest the lead with Aron Canet (Pons Kalex), Jake Dixon (Aspar Kalex), Augusto Fernandez (Ajo Kalex) and Mar- cel Schrotter (IntactGP Kalex) in a thrilling five-way fight. Canet and Vietti traded blows, with the lead changing hands between the pair four times on the final eight laps. Starting the final lap, it appeared Canet had done enough for victory with a precise move at turn one. But Vietti re- sponded with a brilliant cutback on the exit of the tenth turn and held his rival off by the flag by 0.081 seconds for a third win of the year. Fernandez nabbed third from Dixon with just three turns remaining for his second podium finish of the year with just 0.6 seconds covering the leading quartet at the flag. Schrotter was fifth, ahead of Pedro Acosta (Ajo Kalex), who benefited from a lap- 20 crash at turn 12 for Sam Low- es (Marc VDS Kalex) and Albert Arenas (Aspar Kalex), whose bike broke down. Ai Ogura (HTA Kalex) was seventh. ROUND 9 / JUNE 3-5, 2022 CIRCUIT OF BARCELONA / CATALUNYA, SPAIN P86 MOTOGP I MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP Aleix Espargaro (41) celebrated a podium finish a little too early and ended up a heartbreaking fifth.