MOTO3: Dennis Foggia wins – Garcia misses golden opportunity
By Admin
Dennis Foggia wins in Aragon after an incredible race. Sergio Garcia had a great opportunity to close in on the championship lead, but a crash four corners from the end of the race missed the chance.
Perfect conditions for the Moto3 riders out on track for the 19-lap Grand Prix of Aragon after a foggy Warm-Up session this morning. Darryn Binder lined up on pole with Gabri Rodrigo and Tatsuki Suzuki alongside him. Sergio Garcia started fourth with Championship Leader Pedro Acosta lining up in ninth.
The lights went out for the short run into Turn one, and Darryn Binder swooped across the front of the field to keep his position. Gabri Rodrigo remained second with Sergio Garcia out-doing Tatsuki Suzuki for third. Further back, Filip Salac was out of the seat and off the foot pegs out on the kerb as they exited Turn one. Garcia made his move into Turn five to take second from Rodrigo.
Garcia got a good run-on Binder into Turn 12, but completely out-braked himself and missed the apex. This allowed Binder and Rodrigo to cut underneath and he dropped to third. Suzuki followed them through a couple of corners later. The slipstream down the back straight allowed Gabri Rodrigo into the lead and Garcia went back up to second. Rodrigo was clearly pushing hard to stretch the group, all over the kerbs into Marquez Corner and managed to keep the lead at the end of the back straight while the rest of the field squabbled behind him. But, Turn 1 saw him drop to 5th with Andrea Migno taking the lead.
Pedro Acosta had an attempt at over-taking Rodrigo in the flip-flop chicane of Turns eight and nine. He had a bit of a wobble at the apex and had to back out because Rodrigo wasn’t giving the place up for anybody. They both went wide and Filip Salac took advantage.
Salac had a spill at Turn 12. He was steaming into the corner, off-line far too fast and tucked the front. Deniz Oncu made a phenomenal move into the same corner, slipping up the inside of Suzuki and Garcia to get to second. He took the lead going into Lap four.
Pedro Acosta was on the coat tails of his championship rival by Lap four. He was following the GASGAS bike through. Garcia and Binder came close coming into the final corner as Garcia drafted past the South African and took his line. On Lap five, there was a slight breakaway group of 14 riders and stretched all the way back to Izan Guevara.
It was all very frantic at the front and into Turn 12, Leopard Racing’s Xavi Artigas went third after clipping the rear of Pedro Acosta in the second part of the corkscrew – with his team-mate Dennis Foggia in fifth. The two Leopard bikes seemingly came from nowhere to be in very competitive positions.
In the final corner of Lap six, Gabri Rodrigo had another high-sider. It dumped him on the floor at speed and took Romano Fenati into the gravel as well. Fenati stayed on as he rallied across the gravel to get back to the track. After all of the shenanigans, with 12 laps to go the breakaway group was 9 riders, just under a second clear of the two SIC58 riders of Lorenzo Fellon and Tatsuki Suzuki.
On lap nine, Xavi Artigas went wide into Turn 12 giving away a few positions. Into Turn 14, Darryn Binder lunged at the inside of Pedro Acosta. They rubbed fairings and Acosta opened up the corner just enough to give Binder enough room for them both to stay upright.
At the half-way point, Xavi Artigas was in the lead after his move on Sergio Garcia then Deniz Oncu in consecutive corners. Deniz Oncu got out of the seat out of the final turn but managed to keep his second position after a good recovery down the start/finish.
Carlos Tatay had a crash at Turn five with nine laps to go, but he was miles away from the lead group, so a disappointing weekend for the man who seemed to have pace early on in the race meeting.
Back at the front, Dennis Foggia moved up to second behind Deniz Oncu. Foggia had to watch his lines though, because he had been handed a track limit warning a couple of laps previous. The first long-lap penalty was handed to the young Frenchman Lorenzo Fellon who was having a good race in 10th. He took the penalty as soon as the warning flashed up on his dash and could begin to rebuild his race with only eight-laps remaining.
Dennis Foggia moved into the lead with a neat move into Turn one on lap 13, and he had built a very good race, looking cool, calm and calculated throughout. Pedro Acosta and Sergio Garcia were still nailed together in fourth and fifth watching the bickering front three riders, but looking safe, until Izan Guevara stuffed his GASGAS up the inside of the RedBull KTM Ajo of Acosta at Turn five. Garcia on the other hand had made his way back towards the front and moved up to second.
Into the final five laps, Deniz Oncu had gotten back to the front of the race and was followed by Xavi Artigas. Garcia was sat in fourth, and was all over the green beyond the kerbs so needed to watch for doing this too often otherwise a penalty was coming his way.
With four laps left, Pedro Acosta lost the front into Turn seven, taking out Xavi Artigas in the process. Artigas went flying off into the gravel and went down heavily. It was a rash move that was never really on from the Championship Leader. Into the penultimate lap, Foggia moved past Deniz Oncu with Sergio Garcia in third and Izan Guevara in fourth. Garcia made a move for second into the Corkscrew but Oncu retook the position into Turn 12.
The last lap saw a group of four with Ayumu Sasaki watching closely in fifth. Deniz Oncu reclaimed the lead with a wobbly move up the inside of Foggia into Turn five. Guevara tried to make a move around the outside of Garcia into the Corkscrew but Garcia lifted him up out of the way.
Down into Turn 12, Sergio Garcia had a bobble on turn in, lost the front and went down into the gravel. All he needed to do was get good points haul and he missed his opportunity falling out of third. His team looked in absolute disbelief as Pedro Acosta smiled in his pit box. Deniz Oncu led down the back straight and weaved to break the slipstream for Dennis Foggia, but Foggia followed every move the Turkish rider made. He moved up the inside and Oncu stuck right on his rear wheel through the final corner. As they charged for the line, Oncu pulled out of the slipstream but couldn’t quite make it past. Foggia took the victory. Ayumu Sasaki finished a fantastic third with Izan Guevara in fourth. Sergio Garcia crossed the line in 18th out of the points, so Pedro Acosta lost nothing to his closest rival.
Incredible excitement as we have come accustomed to in Moto3. A massive opportunity missed by Sergio Garcia to close on the championship lead, and Pedro Acosta is the luckiest man in the championship today. What…a…race!
Featured Image: MotoGP.com.