In the Moto2 race at Le Mans, Italian rider Tony Arbolino on a Kalex emerged victorious, adding another chapter to a dramatic season. The event reached its climax amid the high drama of the 1,000th Grand Prix milestone, with Czech rider Filip Salac and Spaniard Alonso López completing the podium on Kalex and Boscoscuro machines respectively. The day will be remembered for a red flag that disrupted the schedule after a severe accident involving three Spanish riders, yet Arbolino saw his championship prospects strengthened as Pedro Acosta, the Murcia native on a Kalex, crashed out before finishing. This sequence left Arbolino firmly atop the standings in the middleweight class.
Chaos unfolded in the opening moments, triggered by a series of misfortunes that reshaped the grid. With twenty eight riders on track, Borja Gómez on a Kalex faced a mechanical issue that prevented him from lining up on the grid, immediately signaling trouble for the start. Alonso López, piloting a Boscoscuro, seized the pole position momentarily and overtook Sam Lowes, who rides a Kalex and who would later crash at Turn 1 on the following lap, setting the tone for a race packed with sudden shifts.
Seconds later, another chain of events intensified the action: Albert Arenas on a Kalex crashed dramatically, and Arón Canet as well as Manu González experienced incidents that left their bikes scattered. The race was officially halted as a red flag was waved on the Le Mans circuit, the incident triggering a pause that reduced the scheduled 22 laps to a 14-lap sprint once racing resumed.
When the action resumed under a now closed pit lane, Lowes found himself in a difficult position, almost repeating the pole start yet forced to restart from the back. Seizing the moment, Tony Arbolino surged as traffic cleared, and as the lights flickered back to green he sprinted ahead of Alonso López to assume the lead and set the pace for the race.
Pedro Acosta, the young Spaniard who had been dominating the championship, managed to overtake his compatriot López and moved up behind the wheel of the faster machine from Trentino. From Le Mans he extended his lead in the overall standings, amassing a substantial points gap as the race continued. Yet early in the race, the door opened for Arbolino to capitalize on the chaos. A fall by Acosta at Turn 7 after ten laps opened a window of opportunity for Arbolino to extend his advantage, and the Italian took full advantage, driving consistently to secure the win.
Arbolino then had to fend off a determined challenge from Salac, who chased him closely as the laps counted down. The duel shaped the outcome of the race, with Arbolino weathering the pressure to preserve his lead and celebrate a pivotal victory that cemented him as the sole leader in the middle category of the season. The result echoed through the standings, signaling a shift in the championship race and highlighting the depth of competition across the field.
Looking at the rest of the Spaniards, Fermín Aldeguer on a Boscoscuro finished in eighth place, while Sergio García Dols and Jeremy Alcoba, both riding Kalex machines, claimed tenth and thirteenth respectively. Marcos Ramírez, aboard a Striker, finished seventeenth, Izan Guevara on a Kalex crossed the line in twenty-second, and Borja Gómez completed the day in twenty-third after managing to start despite the earlier setbacks. The race, marked by resilience and quick adaptation, showcased the talent pipeline across the teams and highlighted the unpredictable nature of Grand Prix motorcycle racing in Europe this season.