KTM Ajo’s Pedro Acosta overcame a pit-lane start to secure an emphatic first Moto3 victory in the Doha Grand Prix in only his second start in the class.
Acosta was one of seven riders to take the start of the 18-lap encounter after being found guilty of irresponsible riding during Friday practice, a penalty that ultimately left the group over ten seconds down on the next machine by the time they exited the pits.
Acosta led the group ahead of Sergio Garcia, Romano Fenati as well as Stefano Nepa towards the back of the pack-at times taking two seconds a lap from the leading riders-by the time the race reached two-thirds distance, the Spaniard then beginning to make his presence felt as he carved through the 21-man strong lead pack towards the front.
He found himself breaching the top five with only a few tours remaining before snatching the lead away into Turn 1 as the final lap began, the reigning Red Bull Rookies champion immediately sprinting clear of Darryn Binder as he aimed to pull off his miracle recovery.
A near half-second lead half-way round the final circulation meant he just had enough to stay ahead of Binder through the faster final two sectors, the Ajo KTM machine taking the chequered flag just 0.039s ahead of Binder’s Petronas SRT bike-becoming the first man to ever achieve the feat in the lightweight class.
Niccollo Antonelli completed the rostrum finishers as he held off Andrea Migno, while Kaito Toba rounded out the top five for the CIP Green Power squad.
Izan Guevara managed sixth ahead of Ayumu Sasaki, while Ryusei Yamanaka moved from 17th on the grid to take eighth by the end of the contest.
Pole-man Jaume Masia was in the thick of the victory battle right until the end before coming together with fellow front-runner Gabriel Rodrigo on the penultimate tour, the second Ajo man salvaging ninth having run off track in the incident.
Fenati completed his own comeback ride solidly to finish off the top ten runners, while Rodrigo ended up taking 12th on the line from Tatsuki Suzuki.
John McPhee saw a second race ended by Jeremy Alcoba in as many weeks, the latter getting caught out under brakes into Turn 1 with just four laps remaining as he went down and slid into the unfortunate Scotsman.
Garcia saw his impressive recovery ended with a crash while working his way through the top ten with just under two laps to run, while Xavi Artigas was taken down by Carlos Tatay in the process of making good progress through the field after serving an early double long-lap penalty.
Acosta’s win sees him take over the lead of the world championship by nine points over Binder, with Qatar GP winner Masia now third overall a further four points adrift.
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