Race report

Moto3 Le Mans

Le Mans Moto3: Garcia wins wet race, Acosta extends points lead

Sergio Garcia dominated a wet Moto3 French Grand Prix ahead of Filip Salac, as Pedro Acosta recovered to eight after an early crash to extend his championship lead.

Lewis Duncan

Edited: May 16, 2021, 4:47 PM

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Sergio Garcia, Aspar Team Moto3

So treacherous were the conditions at the start that Avintia’s Carlos Tatay crashed exiting pitlane on his sighting lap, which forced him to the back of the grid.

Poleman Andrea Migno held firm on the run up to the Dunlop chicane at the start, though ran off track and allowed Ajo KTM’s Jaume Masia to move into the lead – Migno slipping back to fifth.

Masia made a mistake down at the Garage Vert double-apex right-hander a moment later, dropping to third and promoting the other Avintia KTM of Niccolo Antonelli into the lead.

But Antonelli’s race lasted just a few more corners as he crashed at the final corner, with the Snipers Honda of Filip Salac taking over at the front of the pack.

Championship leader Pedro Acosta had made great gains from 21st of the grid, the Ajo KTM rider 11th at the end of lap one and up to sixth by the start of the third tour.

But Acosta slid off at the Dunlop chicane, dropping back outside the top 20 and forcing him into another recovery ride.

Teammate Masia crashed out of podium contention seconds earlier at the last corner, with the conditions also catching out SIC58 Honda’s Tatsuki Suzuki and the Gresini duo of Jeremy Alcoba and Gabriel Rodrigo.

Riccardo Rossi briefly snatched the lead from Salac on the second lap, but made an error at La Chaelle, which allowed Salac back into first.

At the Chemin aux Boeufs esses on lap two, Garcia moved ahead of Salac, with the pair quickly putting a buffer of over five seconds between themselves and Rossi behind.

By lap eight Garcia’s lead was already over a second, but Salac dug deep over the following tours to reduce his deficit to under a second again.

A mistake from Garcia at Garage Vert allowed Salac briefly back into the lead on lap 13, though Garcia would reclaim the position a few corners later.

Once back in the lead, Garcia opened up a lead over over two seconds to ease to the chequered flag for his second Moto3 victory and first since Valencia 2019.

Salac remained second for his maiden podium, with BOE Owlride KTM’s Rossi resisting a late charge from John McPhee to hold onto his first podium in third.

Petronas Sprinta’s McPhee scored his first points of 2021 in fourth ahead of Tech 3 KTM’s Ayumu Sasaki and Max Racing KTM rookie Adrian Fernandez.

Xavier Artigas was seventh on his Leopard Honda having been forced to visit hospital on Saturday following a crash in FP3.

Acosta completed the top eight after his earlier fall, which opens his championship lead up to 54 ahead of Garcia following a disastrous race for the likes of Antonelli and Masia.

Deniz Oncu was ninth on the sister Tech 3 KTM, with Romano Fenati completing the top 10 on his Max Racing KTM.

Race results:

Cla # Rider Bike Gap 1 11 Spain Sergio García
GASGAS 2 12 Czech Republic Filip Salač
Honda 2.349 3 54 Italy Riccardo Rossi
KTM 5.589 4 17 United Kingdom John McPhee
Honda 7.158 5 71 Japan Ayumu Sasaki
KTM 14.882 6 31 Mexico Adrian Fernandez
Husqvarna 27.279 7 43 Spain Xavier Artigas
Honda 27.408 8 37 Spain Pedro Acosta
KTM 29.880 9 53 Turkey Deniz Öncü
KTM 35.098 10 55 Italy Romano Fenati
Husqvarna 36.616 11 16 Italy Andrea Migno
Honda 42.347 12 6 Japan Ryusei Yamanaka
KTM 42.739 13 50 Switzerland Jason Dupasquier
KTM 42.756 14 28 Spain Izan Guevara
GASGAS 50.891 15 19 Indonesia Andi Gilang
Honda 52.753 16 73 Austria Maximilian Kofler
KTM 53.054 17 82 Italy Stefano Nepa
KTM 53.568 18 7 Italy Dennis Foggia
Honda 1'18.995 19 20 France Lorenzo Fellon
Honda 1'19.103 20 40 South Africa Darryn Binder
Honda 1'54.124 21 27 Japan Kaito Toba
KTM 1 Lap 22 52 Spain Jeremy Alcoba
Honda 4 Laps 99 Spain Carlos Tatay
KTM 8 Laps 32 Takuma Matsuyama
Honda 19 Laps 2 Argentina Gabriel Rodrigo
Honda 20 Laps 5 Spain Jaume Masia
KTM 21 Laps 24 Japan Tatsuki Suzuki
Honda 21 Laps 23 Italy Niccolo Antonelli
KTM 21 Laps View full results

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