Catalunya Moto3: Alonso victorious as Holgado suffers late exit

David Alonso hit the front in as the frontrunners hit the final corner three abreast in a nailbiting finish to the Catalunya Moto3 Grand Prix.

Lisa Lewis

03 Sep 2023

David Alonso, Moto3 race, Catalunya MotoGP, 3 September

Alonso spent the early part of the race working his way through from twelfth on the grid while Jaume Masia, Deniz Oncu and Daniel Holgado did the work leading the race out front in a tense start to the eleventh round of the championship.

The tailwind on the straight and overtaking allowed the Gaviota GasGas Aspar rider to make his own moves within the huge lead group, which only splintered into a lead fourteen over the last few laps.

Alonso had his own brief spell in the lead on lap six, before sitting in behind, but never far from the man in first.

As so often in Moto3, the last lap of Montmelo proved crucial. It was championship leader Holgado who lead down the straight and over the line, before Jaume Masia made his move, taking over at the front by turn five.

As the corners counted down the group bunched up and the championship leader was swamped, pushing to stay in with a podium shout, he slipped off unaided at turn ten on the last lap, but remounted his Red Bull KTM Tech3 bike in the hope of a point. It was not to be, crossing the line 22nd.

Back up front Masia was under pressure and soon saw David Munoz in control - as the lead trio of that duo and Alonso came around the final bends they were in a line, with the win wide open and the line approaching.

The #80 threaded his bike through the smallest of gaps to win over the line by just 0.076s for his second career win.

Masia held second after his determined run for Leopard Honda, but it was Deniz Oncu who crossed the line third after his swoop from behind on his Red Bull KTM saw him slide straight into the side of Munoz at turn fourteen, taking him out of the race.

The move was quickly investigated by race direction, and the Turkish rider was handed a six second penalty, dropping him to twelfth. A dejected Oncu had his head in his hands, kicking the railings at the news.

That promoted his teammate in the Ajo outfit, rookie Jose Antonio Rueda, to his first ever podium finish.

Ayumu Sasaki gained places late in the race and was on Rueda’s tail on track for fourth for Liqui Moly IntactGP, recovering well from his 13th place start.

Stefano Nepa also made gains and was as high as third briefly in the tight group on his way to fifth for the Angeluss MTA Team.

Riccardo Rossi secured sixth for the SIC58 Squadra Corse team, just ahead of CIP Green Power’s Kaito Toba in seventh , while his compatriots, Leopard’s Tatsuki Suzuki and Aspar’s Ryusei Yamanaka completed the top ten with Ivan Ortola, who launched from pole for the first time in his career, but faded in the competitive pack.

Matteo Bertelle placed eleventh for Rivalcold Snipers, with Oncu slotted into twelfh.

There was a gap back on track for 13th, with Xavier Artigas, who charged through from 22nd on his CFMoto bike just holding off Taiyo Furusato (Honda Team Asia) to the chequered flag.

Scott Ogden raced his way up to 15th as the best of the VisionTrack riders, but he was demoted a place for contact ealrier in the race when his move was reviewed, allowing Romano Fenati to pick up the final point.

The Rivacold rider had been moved to the very back of the grid and handed an additional long lap penalty for irresponsible riding in Q2, deemed to have been riding slowly.

Front row starter Joel Kelso faded badly, finishing 18th for CFMoto.

Crashes, injuries and replacements

There were two Moto3 wildcards in the Catalan race - Tachakorn Buasri (20th) for Honda Team Asia and David Almansa with Finetwork Intact GP in 24th.

With Holgado remounting, the only DNFs in the race were for Munoz and Fillipo Farioli, who lasted four laps.

Austria’s polesitter Collin Veijer was reclared unfit following his highside in qualifying.

Where does that leave the championship?

Holgado still leads but remains on 161 points after his fall, with his advantage cut to 13 points over Sasaki. Jaume Masia takes back over in third with 129 points after Oncu’s demotion with just a point between the pair.