Catalunya Moto3: Garcia snatches home victory after frantic final lap

Sergio Garcia worked himself into the right place at the right time to win the Moto3 Catalan Grand Prix, round seven of the championship.

As so often the case, Moto3 came down to who came out on top in the final lap antics. With nobody wanting to lead at the end of the penultimate lap all fifteen bikes in the front group were touring as Jeremy Alcoba desperately tried to get rid of the lead.

Darryn Binder found himself in the unfortunate slot, while Sergio Garcia positioned himself perfectly in the huge fan-out of bikes at turn one.

Pedro Acosta came out in front after that, but the Soluunion GasGas rider came to the front at the right time to hold the lead over the line and take his second win of the year for Aspar, after also taking the spoils in France, but this time in front of fans as they are back trackside for the first time this season.

25 points on home soil moves the Spaniard into second in the championship, behind Acosta by a deficit of 39.

Alcoba gave chase but came just short, finishing a slim 0.015s behind in second for Gresini and Honda.

Red Bull KTM Ajo’s Jaume Masia had crossed the line in third, but was demoted to fourth for exceeding track limits again on the final, frantic lap.

That lifted Tech 3 Red Bull's Dennis Oncu to third, the tearful, overwhelmed Turkish rider securing his first podium finish in the process as the top KTM rider.

All the rostrum bound riders wore t-shirts in memory of Jason Dupasquier to collect their trophies.

 All the frontrunners avoided the late tumble of GasGas rider Izan Guevara from second at turn ten the last lap.

Darryn Binder illustrated why nobody wanted to lead coming into the final run around the Montmelo track. The South African finished fifth for Petronas Sprinta Racing.
 
Polesitter Gabriel Rodrigo was next to see the flag. After some particularly aggressive weaving several times at turn one he finished sixth for Gresini.

Acosta(Red Bull KTM Ajo) progressed rapidly from 25th on the grid, his worst qualifying to date, to lead the race on several occasions. The rookie could not quite place himself right for the win on the entertaining final lap. He was a solid seventh, increasing his championship tally of points to 120.

Niccolo Antonelli took advantage of the slow riding ahead of the final fan-out to pick up several places and extra points as he climbed to eighth for Avintia Esponsorama.

Ninth went to Kaito Toba, who also moved through the huge lead group in the closing stages for CIP Green Power.

Stefano Nepa lead a session for the first time this weekend when he topped FP3 and then secured his best ever qualifying, starting the race from fourth. He could not quite keep the same form but completed the top ten for BOE Owlride.

Romano Fenati was one of many riders to lead briefly over the twenty-one lap distance before ending up back where he started - 11th for Sterilgarda Max Racing Team.

Yuki Kunii (Honda Team Asia) rallied for twelfth late on to finish ahead of Daniel Holgado. The Spanish youngster made his world championship debut replacing the injured Max Kofler at CIP Green Power.

Over at Avintia Esponsorama Carlos Tatay has Elia Bartolini keeping his seat warm, he was next to see the chequered flag in 14th.

Ryusei Yamanaka, back following his absence to be with team-mate Dupasquier last weekend, collected the final point for CarXpert PruestelGP.

The late fall that brought out the red flag involved Ayumu Sasaki, back on track after his involvement in the Jason Dupasquier crash, where he was launched skyward. His late spill collected Mugello winner Dennis Foggia, who never really got into gear in Spain and only started 16th, with Xavier Artigas also mixed up in the incident. Sasaki was taken to the medical centre for further checks, but was reported to be conscious.

Update: The Tech 3 team later reported Sasaki had sustained a head trauma and had been transferred to the local hospital for further checks.

Wildcard Takuma Matsuyama (Honda Team Asia) was classified 18th.

Riccardo Rossi crashed out before he got the chance to get started, falling on the warm-up lap, he didn’t rejoin the race.

Filip Salac retired from the race, as did Adrian Fernandez. After recieving a long lap penalty for taking a shortcut at turn 1/2, then another one for exceeding track limits, the Spaniard decided to call it a day.

John McPhee, who had been having a strong weekend and looked race-ready, had been leading the race when he slid out of contention after trying to stretch the group and pull out a lead. Falling at turn two, his Honda came back onto the track. It was avoided by all but Tatsuki Suzuki and Andrea Migno, who already tangled trying to avoid the crash and were off their bikes when they made contact with the number 17 machine.