Qualifying
Quali turned out with P1 Andrea Migno (his only second pole in the class) P2 Dennis Foggia and P3 Jeremy Alcoba. The winner from the last race at Qatar, Pedro Acosta, found himself P12 after his sensational pit lane to chequered flag last time out. There were some pit laners this time too, Darryn Binder, Deniz Oncu, Jeremy Alcoba and John McPhee, both of whom had some heavy penalties after their Kung Fu Panda antics in Qatar. (We understand John’s frustrations, but rules are rules and he was hit for “bringing the sport into disrepute”)
The Race
The first lap saw Andrea Migno leading with Xavier Artigas P2 (impressive from 6th) and Dennis Foggia P3, even more, impressive Acosta went from P12 on the grid to P6, the 16-year-old once again showing form. Artigas briefly led with 20 laps to go, but soon Migno took back the spot, and with 18 laps to go Xavier Artigas was clipped by Gabriel Rodrigo and hit the deck, unable to recover, his race over and a bad start to the season for the Leopard rider, at this point Acosta had a brief lead, then Foggia went P1.
With 14 laps to go, it was Foggia holding station in P1 with Acosta P2 and Gabi Rodrigo P3, but then the bombshell hit Gabi, a long lap penalty for his infringement on Artigas. Whilst that was going on Kaito Toba clipped the young rookie Izan Guevara taking them both down, welcome to Moto3 Izan! This left Foggia P1 Sergio Garcia P2 and Pedro Acosta lurking dangerously in P3.
There had been the usual Moto3 swapping around and with 6 laps to go, it was Dennis Foggia P1 the constant leader, Pedro Acosta P2 and his Red Bull KTM Ajo teammate Jaume Masia P3. Tatsuki Suzuki and Adrian Fernandez fell down at this point, not to restart. Two laps to go it was Foggia, Acosta and Migno with Masia fifth.
The Result
Last lap shenanigans and it was Dennis Foggia in the lead, Pedro Acosta P2 and Jaume Masia up to P3. Foggia was low down in the championship and Acosta leading so was it going to be Pedro taking the points in second, he’s sixteen, and a racer, what do you think! Masia made some kind of error and slid off leaving Foggia and Acosta fighting it out with Migno trailing in P3. In the final sector, Pedro Acosta sliced under Foggia with late braking and held his line taking the win, once again in a sensational race to the line, Andrea Migno a solid 3rd. Masia managed to haul the bike up and finish 9th.
A second win in as many races, Pedro Acosta, at just sixteen has stamped his riding style and racecraft all over Moto3. It’s like he thinks the whole race out, knowing how HE will make it work, and in a post-race interview confirmed this when he recalled a conversation with his mechanic who had asked what the plan was, “I have fun for twenty-five minutes, then I take the trophy”. When you have a sixteen-year-old so assured and so skilled, if you are one of the other Moto3 riders right now, you might want to be visiting a sports psychologist sometime soon.
See you in Jerez in two weeks.
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Author: Martin Northern
Founder of Bike Directory
