Manuel Gonzalez paces 2024 Moto2 pre-season test, Jake Dixon competitive at

Manuel Gonzalez had the honour of topping the first pre-season test for the 2024 Moto2 World Championship at a rain-hampered Portimao.

The Spaniard, who makes the switch to QJMotor Gresini for what will be his third season in the intermediate Grand Prix class, found a break in the weather over the two days to go quickest with a 1m 42.797secs lap.

It was good enough to give him almost a tenth of a margin over new Fantic Racing signing Aron Canes, with Marc VDS Racing’s Tony Arbolino completing a fairly familiar top three, just over two tenths off the pace-setting Gonzalez.

Following his star turn towards the latter stages of the 2023 Moto2 season, Marcos Ramirez picked up where he left off for American Racing, the Spaniard in fourth to headline a positive test for the US-based outfit with the returning Joe Roberts proving competitive in eighth.

Resplendent in the new colours of title-backer CFMoto, Jake Dixon was also competitive in fifth place with his best time on day one. He also topped the timesheets on a sparsely contested second day during a break in the weather, the Briton lapping two seconds off the ultimate pace but getting in plenty of laps.

A rider familiar with the Portimao circuit from his time competing in the Moto2 European Championship, Senna Agius – who heads into his first full season of international Moto2 action with Intact GP this year – was by far the best of the ‘rookies’ in sixth place, ahead of Filip Salac on the second of the Marc VDS entries.

Bo Bendsneyder and Ai Ogura – now on Boscoscuro machinery after his switch from Honda Team Asia to newcomers MT Helmets-MSI – rounded out the top ten.

Elsewhere, hot title favourite Fermin Aldeguer and his SpeedUp Racing team-mate paid the price for only participating on the second day when the track wasn’t at its optimal, posting lap times well down the order.

However, the Moto2 field will swiftly head over to a second more representative three-day test at Jerez this week.

???????? ⏱️ 2024 Moto2 World Championship, Portimao | Pre-Season Testing Results