Moto3 France: Garcia gets to grips with tricky track conditions for victory
Sergio Garcia looked as good in the wet as in the dry as he managed an ever evolving Le Mans circuit to take victory in the Moto3 French Grand Prix, round five of the championship.
The Valencian started eighth on the grid but confidence in the wet, coupled with several early crashes, saw him battle for the lead with Filip Salac.
With a dry line forming Garcia survived several scares looking for damp patches with one huge wobble seeing Salac briefly lead a grand prix for the first time.
The Spaniard soon found himself back in front and then used the final laps of the race to pull out a comfortable lead, to take his second win and his Gaviota GasGas Aspar team’s first victory.
His Czech rival held on for a superb second, his first podium finish, 2.349s behind for Rivacold Snipers Honda.
The all teenage rostrum was completed by Riccardo Rossi, also making his debut as a podium finisher.
The BOE Owlride KTM rider couldn’t bridge the gap to the lead duo who had made their escape at the front, but put in the fastest lap of the race in the run in to the flag to keep John McPhee at bay as he chased him down to try and snatch third.
Despite his great pace over the latter stages of the race to pull him into contention the British rider had to settle for fourth, though with great relief aboard his Petronas Sprinta machine as it marks his first points finish of the season.
He passed Ayumu Sasaki (Red Bull KTM Tech 3), who crossed the line sixth ahead of Adrian Fernandez, who started down in 26th and staged an impressive race day comeback to be top rookie with his best result to date.
Xavier Artigas was equally excellent in eighth - he missed qualifying entirely to attend hospital for checks after a crash earlier in the weekend. From 27th on the grid he too clawed back places with some quick lapping on the puddle peppered track to finish seventh.
Championship leader Pedro Acosta started from 21st on the grid and was as entertaining as ever. An early crash from fifth was not enough to stop the Red Bull KTM Ajo rider, he kept the slide to a minimum, losing only ten seconds and rejoining where he had started - back in 21st.
Picking off his rivals all over again Acosta was eighth at the chequered flag, extending his lead in the championship with a total of 103 over race winner Garcia who moves into second in the overall standings.
Deniz Oncu’s late pace saw him climb to ninth on the second Red Bull KTM Tech 3 entry, while the experienced Romano Fenati (Sterilgarda Max Racing) completed the top ten.
Polesitter Andrea Migno ran immediately off track and didn’t take the chicane at turn one, he ran a cautious race to stay upright and came home in eleventh on the second Rivacold Snipers entry.
Ryusei Yamanaka and his CarXpert Pruestel team-mate Jason Dupasquier were right behind the Italian in the run to the line, finishing 12th and 13th respectively. Izan Guevara was a distant 14th on the second GasGas bike.
Andi Farid Izdihar topped the very wet Moto3 warm up but had to serve a six place grid penalty for crashing under yellow flag conditions in FP3, pushing him back to last on the grid. He recovered to claim the final point for Honda Team Asia.
Lorenzo Fellon is the only French rider in Moto3, he finished his home race 19th.
Carlos Tatay crashed on the sighting lap but was able to join up at the back of the grid after the warm-up lap. He pulled into the pits later in the race.
Niccolo Antonelli was the first faller, but certainly not the last. He was joined in the gravel by Tatsuki Suzuki, wildcard Takuma Matsuyama and Jaume Masia, who was taken to the medical centre for checks.
Jeremy Alcoba, Kaito Toba and Darryn Binder all rejoined after their falls. Alcoba and Toba were both lapped.
Yuki Kunii misses the French round after fracturing his collarbone during his Saturday fall.
