Emilia Romagna Moto3: Foggia wins to keep title hopes alive

Ajo KTM rider Acosta came into the 16th round of the season with his first match point in the 2021 title fight having led Foggia by 30 points, but will go to Portugal only 21 points clear now after Foggia came from 14th to win the race.

Poleman Niccolo Antonelli grabbed the holeshot at the start from the BOE Owlride KTM of Riccardo Rossi and Austin winner Izan Guevara (Aspar GasGas).

Title rivals Acosta had found himself back in seventh from fifth on the grid, while Foggia had dropped to 15th at the end of the opening lap.

At the front the sister BOE Owlride KTM of Stefano Nepa briefly took the lead from Antonelli into the fast Curvone right-hander – but the Avintia rider would return to the lead two tours later into the Quercia hairpin.

Foggia found himself cast adrift of the leading group of nine in the early stages by 1.6s, but once at the head of the second pack the Leopard rider quickly carved into those ahead of him.

By lap 10 Foggia was with the lead group, with Acosta moving into the podium places for the first time on the following tour.

After Antonelli nearly highsided exiting the Turn 6 left-hander on the next lap, Acosta capitalised to take the lead from the Avintia rider.

It was a short-lived stint at the head of the field for the Ajo KTM rider, as Guevara came through into the first corner at the start of lap 13 – before Acosta dropped to fourth when he ran wide at the Rio right-hander.

As a result, Foggia found himself staring at the rear of his title rival having worked his way up to fifth with some firm moves, and would take third from Acosta into Curvone moments later.

On lap 15 Foggia found himself leading for the first time, while Acosta – who was the only rider to run the harder rear tyre in the race – began to drop off the pace and slid down to sixth.

He was promoted a spot when Guevara crashed out of third at Quercia on lap 18, but Foggia, Masia and MotoGP-bound Darryn Binder had broken over a second clear of the rest of the pack.

Come the final laps, Foggia and Acosta’s teammate Masia had streaked over two seconds clear of Binder, with the Ajo KTM rider in a position to take crucial points away from Foggia in the championship.

Foggia held the lead as the pair began the 23rd and final lap, with the Leopard rider covering off two key overtaking spots in Turn 1 and Turn 4.

The Leopard rider then shut down a move into Quercia as he nailed his run out of Turn 6 onto the back straight, and kept that crucial gap to claim an important win.

Acosta snatched third on the final lap from a struggling Binder to limit the damage to his championship lead, but his advantage now stands at 21 points with 50 left up for grabs in 2021.

Binder (Petronas Sprinat) was denied a podium by 0.111s, with Nepa shadowing him, while long-time leader Antonelli faded to sixth.

Romano Fenati was seventh on his Max Racing KTM ahead of Tech 3’s Ayumu Sasaki, with the Leopard Honda of Xavi Artigas and Prustel GP’s Filip Salac completing the top 10.

A double podium for Ajo KTM has crowned the team 2021 Moto3 teams’ champions.

Emilia Romagna Moto3 - Race results:

Cla	#	Rider	Bike	Gap
1	7	Dennis Foggia	Honda
2	5	Jaume Masia	KTM	0.292
3	37	Pedro Acosta	KTM	4.686
4	40	Darryn Binder	Honda	4.797
5	82	Stefano Nepa	KTM	4.853
6	23	Niccolo Antonelli	KTM	5.052
7	55	Romano Fenati	Husqvarna	5.335
8	71	Ayumu Sasaki	KTM	6.642
9	43	Xavier Artigas	Honda	6.736
10	12	Filip Salač	KTM	6.800
11	6	Ryusei Yamanaka	KTM	10.535
12	28	Izan Guevara	GASGAS	17.811
13	31	Adrian Fernandez	Husqvarna	18.050
14	52	Jeremy Alcoba	Honda	18.260
15	19	Andi Gilang	Honda	19.264
16	67	Alberto Surra	Honda	20.217
17	27	Kaito Toba	KTM	24.704
18	73	Maximilian Kofler	KTM	24.902
19	20	Lorenzo Fellon	Honda	24.976
20	96	Daniel Holgado	KTM	25.323
21	64	Mario Aji	Honda	46.495
22	80	David Alonso	GASGAS	1'25.207
	92	Yuki Kunii	Honda
	16	Andrea Migno	Honda
	99	Carlos Tatay	KTM
	24	Tatsuki Suzuki	Honda
	17	John McPhee	Honda
	54	Riccardo Rossi	KTM
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