Moto3 Jerez: Acosta avoids last lap crash drama for victory
Pedro Acosta put together a perfect final lap, overtaking two riders at once to be clear of a late pile up and win the Moto3 Spanish Grand Prix - round four of the championship.
The Red Bull KTM Ajo rider made up for his thirteenth place qualifying, where he found slow riders on his final flying lap but put his shaky start to the weekend behind him rapidly and soon moved in to the lead group.
Moto3 once again came down to the final corners. The sixteen year old showed great racecraft to pull his bike inside, taking both Jaume Masia and Deniz Oncu at once at turn six, where he nearly fell on the previous lap. The rookie then held his lead and line, so was away from Oncu when his final lap fall collected an already sore Darryn Binder and Masia, leaving him free to claim victory on home soil.
Crossing the line 0.417s ahead, Acosta is the first rider to podium in his first four races, the last three all being wins.
The Spaniard increases his championship lead to 51 points, with a total of 95 after just four races.
Romano Fenati, twice a Jerez winner, kept a calm head, his unusual line on the Honda and experience left him out of trouble in the lead group and able to collect second for Sterilgarda Max Racing Team.
The final rostrum spot was filled by Jeremy Alcoba, who staged a huge comeback for Gresini after managing his double long lap penalty, which he served early in the race, leaving him on the back of the lead pack and ready to pick off the places to third.
Andrea Migno survived a scare with six laps remaining when he collided with Ayumu Sasaki, who he used to keep upright. The pair stayed together for the remainder of the race and recovered together, with the Rivacold rider winning the battle to the line to take fourth.
Red Bull KTM Tech 3’s Sasaki took the chequered flag fifth, only just holding off the rapidly approaching Carlos Tatay (Avintia Esponsorama), who had a late long lap penalty for exceeding track limits after taking charge of the chasing group to bridge the gap.
Jason Dupasquier was next to see the finish line, just behind in seventh, a new best for the CarXpert rider.
The rest of the top ten were also close on track. Niccolo Antonelli secured eighth for Avintia Esponsorama, holding off Leopard’s rookie Xavier Artigas in ninth with a late surge from Ryusei Yamanaka pushing him up to tenth on the second CarXpert Pruestel GP entry.
Izan Guevara was the best of the GasGas riders in eleventh, with Sergio Garcia not far behind in 13th. The duo were separated by Filip Salac for Rivacold Snipers.
Yuki Kunii rallied to pull up into the points places late in the race for Honda Team Asia, crossing the line 14th, with BOE’s Stefano Nepa 15th.
Adrian Fernandez was the last of the classified finishers in 24th following his triple long lap penalty - his punishment for causing a crash in Portugal was added to his penalty (along with Dennis Foggia, Yamanaka, Fellon, Rossi and Alcoba) for irresponsible riding in Q1.
John McPhee was out of the points once again - the Petronas rider failed to finish the first lap, a cool tyre saw him slip out of contention despite a big effort to stop his fall.
Foggia crashed out of the race, completing a tough weekend for the Italian. Tatsuki Suzuki, who started on pole, also did not seeing the end of the race.
Gabriel Rodrigo was leading the race when he had a fast high side at turn seven on lap five.
