A wet 18-lap Moto3 race kicked off Sunday’s grand prix proceedings, with chaos erupting throughout the field.
Leopard Honda’s Suzuki inherited the lead on the third lap when Tech3 KTM’s Deniz Oncu spectacularly slid out of first going through Turn 11 after a scrappy start to his race.
Suzuki’s pace proved no match for the rest of the field as the Japanese rider eased to victory by 4.571s.
MT Helmets KTM rider Diogo Moreira held onto second at the end of a frantic final lap, with Lorenzo Fellon’s CIP KTM replacement Andrea Migno – who was unable to find a place on the Moto3 grid for 2023 – rounding out the podium.
VisionTrack Racing Honda rider Scott Ogden did take the chequered flag in a career-best fourth, but was handed a six-second time penalty after the race for wiping out Prustel GP’s David Almansa at Turn 5 on the final tour.
Almansa had been drafted in to replace the injured Joel Kelso and ran in the podium battle for most of his Moto3 debut.
Ogden’s penalty dropped him to fifth ahead of Angeluss MTA Team KTM rider Stefano Nepa, with Kaito Toba the sole SIC58 Honda at the chequered flag after team-mate Riccardo Rossi crashed out on the last lap.
Championship leader Dani Holgado was promoted to fourth by the Ogdon penalty, with his points lead standing at two heading to the Americas GP.
Xavi Artigas (Prustel GP), Aspar’s Ryusei Yamanaka and CIP KTM’s David Salvador completed the top 10.
Almansan re-joined after his last-lap tangle to finish 17th, while poleman Ayumu Sasaki crashed out of the podium places early on.
Cla | Rider | Bike | Laps | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Tatsuki Suzuki | Honda | 18 | 35'18.099 | |
2 | Diogo Moreira | KTM | 18 | 35'22.670 | 4.571 |
3 | Andrea Migno | KTM | 18 | 35'22.798 | 4.699 |
4 | Daniel Holgado | KTM | 18 | 35'26.913 | 8.814 |
5 | Scott Ogden | Honda | 18 | 35'29.611 | 11.512 |
6 | Stefano Nepa | KTM | 18 | 35'29.964 | 11.865 |
7 | Kaito Toba | Honda | 18 | 35'30.258 | 12.159 |
8 | Xavier Artigas | CF MOTO | 18 | 35'30.566 | 12.467 |
9 | Ryusei Yamanaka | GASGAS | 18 | 35'30.943 | 12.844 |
10 | David Salvador | KTM | 18 | 35'30.983 | 12.884 |
11 | Syarifuddin Azman | KTM | 18 | 35'32.132 | 14.033 |
12 | Matteo Bertelle | Honda | 18 | 35'38.835 | 20.736 |
13 | Romano Fenati | Honda | 18 | 35'44.403 | 26.304 |
14 | David Alonso | GASGAS | 18 | 35'45.623 | 27.524 |
15 | Joshua Whatley | Honda | 18 | 35'55.374 | 37.275 |
16 | David Munoz | KTM | 18 | 35'57.701 | 39.602 |
17 | David Almansa | CF MOTO | 18 | 36'00.058 | 41.959 |
18 | Taiyo Furusato | Honda | 18 | 36'03.882 | 45.783 |
19 | Ivan Ortola | KTM | 18 | 36'05.185 | 47.086 |
20 | Filippo Farioli | KTM | 18 | 36'05.479 | 47.380 |
21 | Ana Carrasco | KTM | 18 | 36'12.017 | 53.918 |
22 | Collin Veijer | Husqvarna | 18 | 36'13.735 | 55.636 |
23 | Jose Antonio | KTM | 18 | 36'14.951 | 56.852 |
24 | Deniz Öncü | KTM | 18 | 36'41.258 | 1'23.159 |
Riccardo Rossi | Honda | 17 | 33'25.300 | 1 Lap | |
Jaume Masia | Honda | 13 | 25'29.652 | 5 Laps | |
Mario Suryo Aji | Honda | 13 | 25'45.333 | 5 Laps | |
Ayumu Sasaki | Husqvarna | 10 | 20'17.076 | 8 Laps | |
View full results |
Due to the lack of wet practice for the Moto2 class this weekend, the Moto2 race was shortened to 14 laps.
Aspar’s Jake Dixon grabbed the holeshot off the line, but by lap three he had been overhauled by poleman Alonso Lopez.
Having fluffed his launch at the start, Speed Up’s Lopez spent much of the shortened race in the lead before Marc VDS’ Tony Arbolino hit the front with two laps to go.
Arbolino held on by 0.663s to win ahead of Lopez, with Dixon celebrating the birth of his daughter this weekend with a podium in third.
Pons rider Aron Canet was hit with two long lap penalties for jumping the start, but recovered to fourth despite his punishment ahead of rookie team-mate Sergio Garcia – who also had to take the penalty loop for an incident in qualifying.
Intact GP rider Darryn Binder was sixth from Gresini’s Filip Salac, Honda Team Asia’s Somkiat Chantra, Ajo KTM’s Albert Arenas and Marc VDS’ Sam Lowes.
Pedro Acosta struggled to 12th in the wet conditions having run as high as the podium places at the first corner of the race.
Arbolino now leads the championship by eight points from Canet, with Acosta 12 adrift.
Cla | Rider | Bike | Laps | Time | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Tony Arbolino | Kalex | 14 | 26'26.606 | |
2 | Alonso López | Boscoscuro B-21 | 14 | COSCURO | |
3 | Jake Dixon | Kalex | 14 | 26'28.567 | 1.961 |
4 | Arón Canet | Kalex | 14 | 26'34.375 | 7.769 |
5 | Sergio García | Kalex | 14 | 26'38.560 | 11.954 |
6 | Darryn Binder | Kalex | 14 | 26'38.880 | 12.274 |
7 | Filip Salač | Kalex | 14 | 26'39.706 | 13.100 |
8 | Somkiat Chantra | Kalex | 14 | 26'39.364 | 12.758 |
9 | Albert Arenas | Kalex | 14 | 26'40.255 | 13.649 |
10 | Sam Lowes | Kalex | 14 | 26'40.713 | 14.107 |
11 | Manuel Gonzalez | Kalex | 14 | 26'42.187 | 15.581 |
12 | Pedro Acosta | Kalex | 14 | 26'43.519 | 16.913 |
13 | Celestino Vietti | Kalex | 14 | 26'43.741 | 17.135 |
14 | Joe Roberts | Kalex | 14 | 26'52.477 | 25.871 |
15 | Fermin Aldeguer | Boscoscuro B-21 | 14 | COSCURO | |
16 | Jordi Torres | Kalex | 14 | 26'58.507 | 31.901 |
17 | Jeremy Alcoba | Kalex | 14 | 26'59.189 | 32.583 |
18 | Zonta van den Goorbergh | Kalex | 14 | 27'00.129 | 33.523 |
19 | Barry Baltus | Kalex | 14 | 27'00.361 | 33.755 |
20 | Soichiro Minamimoto | Kalex | 14 | 27'00.524 | 33.918 |
21 | Borja Gomez | Kalex | 14 | 27'14.826 | 48.220 |
22 | Bo Bendsneyder | Kalex | 14 | 27'16.538 | 49.932 |
23 | Lorenzo Dalla Porta | Kalex | 14 | 27'21.793 | 55.187 |
24 | Marcos Ramirez | Forward F2 | 14 | 27'22.020 | 55.414 |
25 | Dennis Foggia | Kalex | 14 | 27'22.170 | 55.564 |
Rory Skinner | Kalex | 5 | 9'51.639 | 9 Laps | |
David Sanchis | Forward F2 | 5 | 9'58.820 | 9 Laps | |
Sean Kelly | Kalex | 1 | 2'02.186 | 13 Laps | |
View full results |