Austria Moto3: Garcia wins by just 0.027s with last-lap Oncu pass

Garcia was denied Red Bull Ring victory last weekend when he crashed battling Pedro Acosta on the final lap, but found redemption in the Austrian GP when he carved past Oncu on the last tour to take his third win of the season.

Poleman Romano Fenati grabbed the holeshot at the start from Tech 3 duo Oncu and Ayumu Sasaki, with Oncu moving into the lead at Turn 4 on the opening tour.

Fenati and Oncu traded the lead on the second lap up the hill at the Turn 3 right-hander, while championship leader Acosta worked his way into third ahead of Sasaki at Turn 9 on the same tour.

Acosta then took the lead at the start of the third lap, though would lose out at Turn 9 to both Fenati and Oncu.

Sasaki’s race would only last until the end of lap six when contact with Petronas Sprinta’s Darryn Binder sent him into retirement at Turn 10 – though the stewards felt the incident warranted no penalty.

After this the lead group of six slightly edged away from the rest of the pack, Oncu, Jaume Masia, Ajo KTM teammate Acosta, Fenati, Aspar’s Sergio Garcia and the Leopard Honda of Dennis Foggia all battling for the podium.

Across most of the 23-lap Austrian GP the lead changed hands between Fenati, Masia, Oncu and Acosta, with the battle for victory really heating up in the final three laps.

Garcia made the first big move at Turn 3 on lap 21 to take the lead, but immediately surrendered it to Acosta.

Come the end of the lap, Oncu had worked his way back to the head of the pack and would continue to lead onto the final lap.

Oncu covered his line through the first corner, but Acosta closed in up the hill into Turn 3 and outbraked the Turk – but Oncu deliberately took a wider line to get a better drive and retake the lead.

Acosta was then punished by Garcia at Turn 4, with the Ajo KTM rider almost highsiding as he got back on the throttle exiting the corner.

Garcia then set about attacking Oncu, pulling off a successful move at Turn 9 and defending his position through the final corner to win.

Foggia pipped Acosta to the final spot on the podium in third, while Fenati took the chequered flag in fifth ahead of Ajo KTM's Jaume Masia, Petronas Sprinta’s John McPhee and the sister Aspar GasGas of Izan Guevara.

Binder dropped to ninth on the final lap, with Kaito Toba completing the top 10 on his CIP KTM.

Garcia’s victory has now cut Acosta’s championship lead to 41 points heading to the British GP at the end of August.

Race results:

Cla	#	Rider	Bike	Gap
1	11	Sergio García	GASGAS
2	53	Deniz Öncü	KTM	0.027
3	7	Dennis Foggia	Honda	0.346
4	37	Pedro Acosta	KTM	0.394
5	55	Romano Fenati	Husqvarna	0.462
6	5	Jaume Masia	KTM	0.794
7	17	John McPhee	Honda	1.331
8	28	Izan Guevara	GASGAS	1.440
9	40	Darryn Binder	Honda	2.399
10	27	Kaito Toba	KTM	6.135
11	24	Tatsuki Suzuki	Honda	6.602
12	12	Filip Salač	KTM	14.716
13	82	Stefano Nepa	KTM	14.920
14	52	Jeremy Alcoba	Honda	21.668
15	19	Andi Gilang	Honda	21.976
16	99	Carlos Tatay	KTM	22.147
17	20	Lorenzo Fellon	Honda	22.161
18	92	Yuki Kunii	Honda	22.198
19	54	Riccardo Rossi	KTM	22.363
20	2	Gabriel Rodrigo	Honda	24.454
21	38	David Salvador	Honda	24.706
22	73	Maximilian Kofler	KTM	25.129
23	22	Elia Bartolini	KTM	34.520
	31	Adrian Fernandez	Husqvarna
	71	Ayumu Sasaki	KTM
	16	Andrea Migno	Honda
View full results