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Edition

Australia

Styrian Moto3: Acosta wins after last-lap Garcia crash

Ajo KTM’s Pedro Acosta won a wet Moto3 Styrian Grand Prix in dramatic fashion after Aspar rider Sergio Garcia crashed at the penultimate corner.

Watch: Moto3: Acosta wins after last-lap Garcia crash at Styrian GP

Acosta and Garcia were the class of the field in the tricky conditions and battled hard on the last lap, with Acosta prevailing to extend his championship lead to 53 points.

There was drama before race even begun, with poleman Deniz Oncu wheeled into pitlane as his Tech 3 team elected to switch him to slick tyres just as the three-minute board was shown.

He was forced to start from the back and was one of seven riders to go for slicks on the wet-but-slowly-drying Red Bull Ring along with Petronas Sprinta duo Darryn Binder and John McPhee, Snipers Honda rider Andrea Migno and his stand-in teammate David Salvador, and Honda Team Asia’s Andi Farrid Izdihar.

Oncu’s penalty essentially gifted Garcia pole position, though it was Romano Fenati on the Max Racing Husqvarna who grabbed the holeshot from Garcia and championship leader Acosta.

Garcia guided his Aspar GasGas into the lead at Turn 9 at the end of the opening lap as the top three had already moved two seconds clear of the field.

Acosta followed Garcia through on Fenati at Turn 3 on the second tour before taking the lead at the same corner a lap later.

Garcia retaliated on the Ajo KTM rider at Turn 3 next time around, while Fenati quickly dropped off the lead battle – the top two over eight seconds clear by lap 12 of 23.

As the track continued to dry out, Acosta appeared to be biding his time behind Garcia, keeping his tyres cool on the damp patches.

On lap 13 the 17-year-old made another moved for the lead at Turn 3 and immediately put three tenths between himself and Garcia.

But the Aspar rider nailed his run through the third sector and reclaimed the lead at Turn 9, once again countering an Acosta overtake at Turns 3 and 4 on lap 18.

Acosta once again tried to take the lead from Garcia at Turn 3 on the penultimate lap, but the latter got a better drive out of the corner and was back in the lead at the bottom of the hill at Turn 3.

Acosta made a daring lunge on the inside of Garcia into the Turn 6 left-hander but found no way through.

He made a move stick into Turn 1 on the final lap, but Garcia able to get into his slipstream up the hill to Turn 3 and launching an attack.

The pair collided, Garcia coming through as Acosta was forced to run off track at Turn 3.

Acosta lined up Garcia again for a move into Turn 9 and came up the inside, with Garcia crashing as the Ajo rider came through.

The latter had his own moment exiting Turn 9 and ran off track again, but took the chequered flag in first place for his fifth win of the season.

Such was Garcia’s advantage over the pack behind that he rejoined and still finished second, while Fenati snatched third from Ajo KTM’s Jaume Masia at the final corner.

Ayumu Sasaki completed the top five for Tech 3 KTM ahead of Binder, who was the leading slick runner on his Honda – though he ended up 20.534s off the victory.

Ryusei Yamanaka was seventh on the Prustel GP KTM ahead of Honda Team Asia’s Yuki Kuni, the returning Max Koffler (CIP KTM) and Max Racing Team rookie Adrian Fernandez.

Oncu made little progress on slick tyres after being demoted to the back of the grid, the Turkish rider 1m12s off the win down in 21st. 

Race results:

Cla # Rider Bike Gap
1 37 Spain Pedro Acosta
KTM
2 11 Spain Sergio García
GASGAS 14.431
3 55 Italy Romano Fenati
Husqvarna 15.410
4 5 Spain Jaume Masia
KTM 15.510
5 71 Japan Ayumu Sasaki
KTM 18.847
6 40 South Africa Darryn Binder
Honda 20.534
7 6 Japan Ryusei Yamanaka
KTM 30.080
8 92 Japan Yuki Kunii
Honda 30.174
9 73 Austria Maximilian Kofler
KTM 30.245
10 31 Mexico Adrian Fernandez
Husqvarna 36.355
11 12 Czech Republic Filip Salač
KTM 36.437
12 27 Japan Kaito Toba
KTM 36.659
13 17 United Kingdom John McPhee
Honda 36.665
14 28 Spain Izan Guevara
GASGAS 37.514
15 24 Japan Tatsuki Suzuki
Honda 37.918
16 20 France Lorenzo Fellon
Honda 47.645
17 16 Italy Andrea Migno
Honda 52.877
18 52 Spain Jeremy Alcoba
Honda 53.006
19 82 Italy Stefano Nepa
KTM 55.944
20 2 Argentina Gabriel Rodrigo
Honda 1'06.540
21 53 Turkey Deniz Öncü
KTM 1'12.291
22 7 Italy Dennis Foggia
Honda 1'22.638
23 54 Italy Riccardo Rossi
KTM 1'31.488
38 David Salvador
Honda
19 Indonesia Andi Gilang
Honda
99 Spain Carlos Tatay
KTM

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