Surging Sergio takes the win in parc ferme at Mugello

June 8, 2022

Moto3 Gran Premio d’Italia Oakley. Mugello

Qualification:

Deniz Oncu continued his recent good form and put his Red Bull KTM Tech 3 in pole position. The young talented Daniel Holgado took P2 with the experienced Dennis Foggia on P3. Sergio Garcia was in a solid P4. Ayumu Sasaki was out after a nasty pre-race crash which left him with two fractured collar bones and a vertebra, we wish him a good recovery.

The Race:

This race started badly with Scott Ogden tagged as the riders blasted off the line, and sadly crashed out. Meanwhile, at the business end, Deniz Oncu took the lead with Diogo Moreira close by in P2 and Izan Guevara in P3, then Foggia, Holgado and Sergio Garcia. With one lap done, the top three had already created a 1.04 second gap over the following group, such was the pace at the flowing Mugello circuit.

Eighteen laps to go and Izan Guevara took Oncu for the lead, but only briefly as Deniz came back at him on the next lap and held the lead until with 16 laps to go Dennis Foggia slipped into P1. After a lap of Guevara taking back the lead, Foggia once again hit the front and settled in for five laps, with now Oncu P2 and Tatsuki Suzuki P3. With 10 laps to go Tatsuki Suzuki tagged Deniz Oncu, with Oncu crashing out, but he was able to get re-started, although it was the end of what promised to be a solid race for Deniz. Within the same lap Foggia, whilst leading the race, slid out and crashed, his race over. Just as that happened, we had more of the wrong kind of action with John McPhee and Daniel Holgado hitting the deck after McPhee lost control and Holgado launched off McPhee’s bike.

Drama over, this left Tatsuki Suzuki in the lead with Andrea Migno P2 and Izan Guevara P3 and Sergio Garcia P4. Suzuki was given an immediate long lap penalty for irresponsible riding over the incident with Oncu, which sent him back to P7. This left Andrea Migno in the lead with Izan Guevara P2 and Ryusei Yamanaka in P3.

Over the next six laps, there were as many changes to the lead, when on the last lap Izan Guevara hit the front, with Suzuki, Migno and Garcia very close. Soon it was Sergio Garcia chasing down teammate Guevara with Suzuki poised to take the spoils if the leading two messed up. Over the line, it was super tight, with Izan Guevara just ahead of Sergio Garcia with Suzuki P3.

By the time the riders had reached parc ferme, it was announced that Guevara had been given a track limits penalty for just touching the green paint on the last corner, thus demoting him to second place, so Garcia took the top step. That rule is harsh, but it is the same for everyone, and Izan just ran into bad luck or misjudgement, however you want to call it.