Moto3 Indonesia: Fast Foggia pulls the pin for Mandalika victory
Dennis Foggia was a class and distance above the rest of the field at a hot and humid Mandalika track as he took victory in the Moto3 Indonesian Grand Prix, round two of the championship,
Once the pre-season favourite found his way to the front of the race on the Honda on lap four the Leopard rider pulled away and increased his lead lap after lap, building on the pace increase his performance in warm-up had hinted at.
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Ahead by almost five seconds on the Honda in the closing stages, the Italian lead over the line by 2.612s after easing off for his first win of the season, the seventh of his Moto3 career, taking over in the race for the title by one point.
Izan Guevara pulled out his own gap late in the race as the remaining riders found themselves battling for second behind Foggia’s stellar performance.
The Gaviota GasGas Aspar rider claimed his second ever podium finish as the remaining bikes were left to decide third after his move to the front paid off.
That final rostrum spot went to pole-sitter Carlos Tatay, who was emotional after putting everything into clawing his way back into the race after a slow start, followed by a long lap penalty having being judged to have taken a shortcut at turn nine.
The CFMoto Racing PruestelGP rider scrapped his way back to third having dropped as low as fourteenth earlier in the race.
Sergio Garcia was not shy of putting on a hard move to hold position, but just missed out on spraying the champagne, finishing fourth on the second GasGas entry, completing a strong day for the team in the championship.
Deniz Oncu fought hard in the same pack for fifth on the Red Bull KTM Tech3, pulling clear of Xavier Artigas in sixth on the second CFMoto entry.
Jaume Masia had a tough final few laps, dropping from third to seventh for Red Bull KTM Ajo.
Matteo Bertelle was the best of the rookies in eighth for QJMotor Avintia Racing. Diogo Moreira, who had impressed in qualifying and earned a front row start, started from the back of the grid after a mechanical issue and later retired.
Fellow rookie Daniel Holgado took ninth on the second Ajo bike with Tatsuki Suzuki climbing into the top ten after a late crash saw his compatriot Ayumu Sasaki lose control and send Qatar winner Andrea Migno flying over his bike.
Ryusei Yamanaka moved up into eleventh following that incident for MT Helmets-MSI, with Kaito Toba twelfth for CIP Green Power, a massive improvement on his last place grid start.
Scott Ogden also benefited, claiming his first would championship points in just his second appearance with VisionTrack Racing, His team-mate Joshua Whatley also made up places in the race for 20th.
The remaining points on offer went to home hero Mario Aji (Honda team Asia), who was well received by the crowd, chanting his name on the grid on his way to 14th. Matteo Bertelle took the chequered flag in 15th on the second QJMotor entry.
Adrian Fernandez also retired to the pits during the race. Alberto Surra, Stefano Nepa and Ivan Ortola all failed to go the distance in Lombok.
John McPhee misssed the race after fracturing his vertebrae while training.
