Dennis Foggia wins in Assen after fending off Romano Fenati, Sergio Garcia and Darryn Binder all race. Fenati took his long-lap penalties early to put together an incredible race.
The big news this morning was that Pedro Acosta was declared fit for the race after his ugly looking crash with Riccardo Rossi and Stefano Nepa. He was 5th in warm-up and lined up 18th on the grid.
Romano Fenati lined up behind Jeremy Alcoba in 2nd but had a double long-lap penalty to complete during the race for his antics with his team-mate in FP1, so he had to decide when that was being taken.
Jaume Masia has a ride through penalty, along with nine other riders for riding slowly in Q1, so the race looked set to be a broken up one.
When the lights went out, the field flooded into Turn 1 Romano Fenati hit the front with Alcoba in 2nd and a very racy Sergio Garcia in 3rd. Dennis Foggia who started on the front row dropped back to 7th and Pedro Acosta dropped to the back after an awful start.
Fenati was clearly looking to break clear of the pack to get himself enough space to complete his long lap penalties, but Sergio Garcia was with him as Dennis Foggia bridged the gap. He took the first one on lap 3 and re-joined in 9th. Dennis Foggia took over the lead.
Jaume Masia, Lorenzo Fellon, Andi Farid Izdahar, Takumi Matsuyama, Yuki Kunii and Joel Kelso all rode down pitlane to take their ride-through penalties at the end of lap 2 so they could start to get on with their race.
Darryn Binder started to come into play at the end of lap 3 as he barged Xavi Artigas out into the pitlane entry as they approached the final chicane.
Romano Fenati took his second long lap penalty on lap 4 and re-joined in 13th. He was still in the race after those penalties, still in the lead group, just behind John McPhee.
Pedro Acosta started to make ground and was 9th by lap 5 after being dead last on the first lap. He’s battered and bruised but still looked incredibly strong in the race.
On lap 10, Niccolo Antonelli and Andrea Migno both went down at Turn 5, after Kaito Toba had a wobble, Antonelli ran into him and Migno tripped over Antonelli’s bike. This broke the lead group of 14 down to 9 riders.
Dennis Foggia – as he did in Germany – looked to be happy sat at the front of the pack. Binder was sat in behind him for a few laps as Romano Fenati made moves behind them. He was back up to 5th by lap 12 and looked very fast and comfortable.
With 9 laps to go, Fenati was back in 2nd behind Foggia with Sergio Garcia in 3rd. Garcia looked to be in good stead as he never really dropped below 4th. He was keeping his powder dry and looking calm and collected.
Adrian Fernandez had a crash with 8 laps to go at the penultimate corner as his miserable weekend continued. He had a wobble, went wide and looked to jump off before it got too nasty. His bike carried on at speed but he was away from it unscathed.
On lap 16, Acosta set the fastest lap and started to make moves. Binder forced his way into 2nd past Fenati and McPhee made a move on Garcia as the racing started to heat up. Foggia looked incredibly strong in the fast final sector. He had the speed and the ability to pull a gap without a slipstream, or at least maintain the gap behind.
With 4 laps to go, it looked to drop from a lead group of 7 riders to a group of 4, but after a few corners of chaos between Foggia, Fenati, Binder and Garcia. The two groups came back together with 3 laps to go. Darryn Binder had a moment in the penultimate corner and wobbled out of 3rd, and dropped to 6th.
As they moved into the final lap, Foggia led with Garcia and Fenati clinging onto his coat tails. It looked to be one of the three that would win. Foggia’s bike was very quick and pulled a gap down the back straight. Garcia tried to dive under Foggia at Turn 8 but had to drop back in the move. Dennis Foggia was off the hook and cruised to the line with Sergio Garcia and Romano Fenati in 2nd and 3rd.
Darryn Binder ended up 4th but was demoted to 7th for numerous exceeding track limits errors. So the brave Pedro Acosta was promoted to 4th. Tatsuki Suzuki was 5th after being in the lead group all race long and missing warm-up because of an inconclusive PCR test. John McPhee was 6th, in front of Gabriel Rodrigo in 8th Xavi Artigas in 9th and pole-sitter Jeremy Alcoba in 10th.
Another very good race from the Moto3 boys. They really know how to put on a show, but you can’t help thinking this would have been even better without all of the penalties. One day, they might learn…
Pedro Acosta still leads the championship going into the summer break, so he has plenty of time to rest after being run over yesterday, for Austria in 5 weeks’ time.