British Moto3: Alonso wins from back of grid, early exit for Masia

David Alonso worked his way to the front at the right time in an electric Moto3 British Grand Prix, round nine of the championship.

The Seventeen year old rookie won his first grand prix in style - becoming the first Colombian ever to do so in just his tenth ever start.

Starting from the back of the grid, last after a poor qualifying performance, with only Scott Ogen behind him after stalling on the start, the odds were against the Gaviota Aspar rider.

The big group out front and the constant contact and tussle for position gave him the opportunity - he didn’t waste it - up to ninth after just two laps.

One lap later Jaume Masia exited from the lead, a further opportunity to make gains, with Alonso well and truly established in the lead group in fourth.

With no room for error as the group of frontrunners was big enough to take you out of the points if wide, The #80 first hit the front on lap seven. It was short lived with both Ayumu Sasaki and Daniel Holgado taking long stints in the lead. 

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As was common, Alonso lost some places being forced to sit up and avoid contact.

As the tense race drew to a close it was Holgado back at the front at the start of the final lap, with the Colombian piling on the pressure behind.

The championship leader went wide and Alonso seized his opportunity at Aintree. Sasaki staged a comeback at Chapel, but as he protected the inside line, Alonso launched his GasGas around the outside and made it work - claiming a historic and memorable win.

Sasaki crossed the line second 0.152s later, to keep his strong run of podium finishes in tact at five in a row for Liqui Moly Husqvarna Intact GP.

There was valuable championship points gained by Holgado, who held on to third for Red Bull KTM Tech3 - also his fifth consecutive rostrum visit.

Ivan Ortola made moves from eighth on the grid to fourth, while David Munoz also sliced through from the rear of the grid, he started 27th and came through to fifth for BOE Motorsports.

He held a small advantage over sixth placed David Salvador (CIP Green Power) who gained a place when Diogo Moreira was demoted a place after the race for exceeding track limits. Jose Antonio Rueda (Red Bull KTM Ajo )was kept at bay in eighth.

Collin Veijer brought himself into play on a day of big runs through the field thanks to a series of fastest laps in the race, as high as fourth from 23rd, the Husqvarna rider finished ninth.

Romano Fenati was on a different line to everybody else and it served him well, briefly hitting the front on his way to a top ten finish for Rivacold Snipers.

Deniz Oncu was sent wide on the final lap on his Red Bull KTM Ajo, a side effect of Alonso’s rush to the front, which saw him move from top three contender down to eleventh.

Stefano Nepa was on his tail, searching for a final one place improvement but had to settle for twelfth for the Angeluss MTA Team.

The remaining points on offer went to Riccardo Rossi (SIC58 Squadra Corse), Kaito Toba in 14th and Ryusei Yamanaka in 15th on the second Gaviota GasGas bike.

Home disaster for the VisionTrack team

Scott Ogden claimed a front row start at home with pace good enough for pole with his disallowed lap set under yellow flags.

The British rider seemed to stall his bike on the warm-up lap - he got around late to join up on the back of the grid. Though he fought back hard the #19 did not make the kind of forward moves possible, shown by Alonso who was one place ahead and went on to win, but did follow Veijer forward to fight it out for the last points places.

Ogden just missed out, taking the chequered flag 16th, but was later demoted a position, along with Moreira for exceeding track limits on the last lap, leaving him 17th.

VisionTrack’s second Brit in the lightweight class, Joshua Whatley also had a punishment to serve -already having a double long lap penalty remaining from Assen for causing the crash in that took out Adrian Fernandez.  He finished 25th.

Crashes, injuries and replacements

Taiyo Furusato required a re-assessment in the morning after a trip to the medical centre folling his qualifying tumble. Declared fit, from 18th he placed  20th.

Winner before the break at Assen, Leopard’s Masia started from pole and was immediately involved at the fight at the front, but the move that took him out of the race was all his own - on lap three he was caught out at The Loop, locking the front and crashing out. The title hopeful rejoined but could only place 18th with the gap to 17th and the battle for points places proving too much to make up.

There was a late incident with Tatsuki Suzuki and Matteo Bertelle which took them out of contention, while Syarifuddin Azman also failed to finish.

Where does that leave the championship?

Daniel Holgado’s podium finish sees him extend his championship lead, moving from 125 and a 16 point gap to 141 and a lead of 22 points. 

Ayumu Sasaki takes over in second after finishing second, moving ahead of Jauma Masia after he failed to add to his tally. The Japanese rider has a total of 119, ten ahead of the Spaniard.