Assen Moto3: Foggia beats Garcia to win by 0.078s

There was drama before the race had even got underway, after Race Direction slapped six riders – Jaume Masia, Lornzo Fellon, Yuki Kuni, Andi Farid Izdihar, Joel Kelso and Takuma Matsuyama – with ride through penalties for irresponsible riding.

Romano Fenati also had a double long-lap penalty to serve after an incident in practice and tried to break away early on when he grabbed the holeshot at the start.

The Max Racing rider served his first penalty loop on lap three, relinquishing the lead to Leopard Racing’s Dennis Foggia for the first time.

Fenati came out in ninth after his first penalty and dropped to 14th after his second, though would work his way back into podium contention in the latter stages.

Foggia was passed by the Aspar GASGAS rider Sergio Garcia at the Stekkenwal right-hander on the fourth lap, though he would found his way back into the lead at the end of the following tour.

Championship leader Acosta was declared fit to race after suffering an upper back injury in a horrible collision in FP3 on Saturday, which forced him out of qualifying and into 18th on the grid.

By the end of lap five Ajo KTM rider Acosta had worked his way to eight and quickly bridged the gap to the leading seven, dragging the gaggle of riders behind him along to create a lead group of 13 at one stage.

Garcia and Foggia would trade the lead on several occasions as the 22-lap race wore on, with Fenati returning to the front of the pack on lap 19 when Foggia made a mistake at Stekkenwal.

But the Leopard Honda rider regrouped and was back at the front by the end of the tour, before upping his pace to try and break away,

Foggia led Garcia and Fenati at the start of the final lap, with SIC58 Honda’s Tatsuki Suzuki just cut adrift by over four tenths in fourth.

Into the final sector Foggia had built up enough of a gap to protect him against attack into the Geert Timmer chicane, with the Leopard rider taking his second win of 2021 by 0.078 seconds from Garcia, with Fenati completing the podium despite his penalties.

Darryn Binder recovered from a massive moment at the fast Ramshoek left-hander late on to take the chequered flag in fourth – though the Petronas Sprinta rider was docked three spots for exceeding track limits, promoting Acosta to fourth.

Binder’s penalty promoted Suzuki and the sister Petronas Sprinta Honda of McPhee up to fifth and sixth, with Gresini’s Gabriel Rodrigo eighth.

Xavier Artigas was ninth on the second Leopard Honda, with poleman Jeremy Alcoba (Gresini) a distant 10th after a crash for Snipers Honda’s Andrea Migno and Avintia’s Niccolo Antonelli at the Strubben hairpin on lap 10 broke up the lead group.

Antonelli did remount to finish 14th, while Migno pulled out.

Garcia’s second has slightly cut Acosta’s championship lead to a still sizable 48 points heading into the five-week summer break. 

Assen Moto3 - Race results:

Cla	#	Rider	Bike	Gap
1	7	Dennis Foggia	Honda
2	11	Sergio García	GASGAS	0.078
3	55	Romano Fenati	Husqvarna	0.207
4	37	Pedro Acosta	KTM	1.352
5	24	Tatsuki Suzuki	Honda	1.445
6	17	John McPhee	Honda	1.510
7	40	Darryn Binder	Honda	1.338
8	2	Gabriel Rodrigo	Honda	9.095
9	43	Xavier Artigas	Honda	9.140
10	52	Jeremy Alcoba	Honda	10.383
11	82	Stefano Nepa	KTM	13.503
12	28	Izan Guevara	GASGAS	13.555
13	27	Kaito Toba	KTM	21.057
14	23	Niccolo Antonelli	KTM	22.090
15	53	Deniz Öncü	KTM	27.036
16	22	Elia Bartolini	KTM	35.745
17	6	Ryusei Yamanaka	KTM	35.801
18	54	Riccardo Rossi	KTM	35.811
19	67	Alberto Surra	Honda	35.879
20	5	Jaume Masia	KTM	45.670
21	20	Lorenzo Fellon	Honda	1'03.492
22	66	Joel Kelso	KTM	1'03.552
23	92	Yuki Kunii	Honda	1'03.769
24	19	Andi Gilang	Honda	1'03.979
25	32	Takuma Matsuyama	Honda	1'04.137
	31	Adrian Fernandez	Husqvarna
	16	Andrea Migno	Honda
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