Dennis Foggia powered to his second Moto3 victory of the year at Assen as he held off a charging Sergio Garcia and Romano Fenati in the closing tours.
The Leopard Racing rider moved into the lead of the Dutch TT as early form man Fenati dropped back after having to serve a double long-lap penalty for his German GP incident, the Italian dropping back to 14th by the time he had taken both punishments on lap four.
Foggia-who once again enjoyed a clear power advantage from his Leopard-run Honda-led the majority of the 22 tours as one by one his rivals failed to eclipse him out in front, the lead group shrinking as the contest went on until only the final four remained to battle for supremacy.
Darryn Binder had recovered from a wide moment at Turn 17 with just two laps remaining-that initially had dropped him from second to seventh-to join Foggia, Garcia and Fenati in the battle for victory, though the South African ultimately found himself unable to challenge those ahead.
Foggia’s straight-line prowess forced Garcia to try and make a late move at Turn 9 on the final circulation, though the GasGas pilot failed to pull it off and dropped back.
This allowed Foggia just enough of an advantage to remain clear of an attack in to the final chicane and roar across the line to record his third career success.
Garcia held off an impressive Fenati to grab second, with Binder fourth on the road on his Petronas SRT machine.
Binder though was dropped back three positions for exceeding track limits, meaning he ended up dropping to seventh with Pedro Acosta instead being creditied with fourth.
Acosta staged an incredible fight-back to finish fifth despite having to remain in hospital overnight following his frightening crash during Saturday’s qualifying session in which he was hit by another rider.
He dropped back to 20th after making a poor start, but put on one of his customary charges through the field to make his way back to the lead group before half-distance, though found himself unable to mount a victory bid across the final few laps as he held off Tatsuki Suzuki for what would become fourth position.
John McPhee was sixth on the second Petronas SRT bike ahead of relegated team-mate Binder with Gabriel Rodrigo, Xavi Artigas and pole-man Jeremy Alcoba completing the top ten.
Title contender Jaume Masia saw his race effectively ended early as he served a ride-through penalty for irresponsible riding during Q1 in qualifying on Saturday, the second Ajo KTM entry taking the chequered flag 20th in the end.
Niccolo Antonelli salvaged 14th and two points despite crashing with Andrea Migno mid-race, the pair running into Kaito Toba as the CIP Green Power man suffered a moment and had to close the gas at Turn 5.
Migno retired as he found himself unable to re-fire his Sniper’s machine while Antonelli rejoined outside the points but was able to work his way back ahead of Deniz Oncu right at the end, Toba taking 13th.
Garcia’s run to second means he narrows Acosta’s points lead to 48 from 55 heading into the five week summer break ahead of the Austrian double-header at the Red Bull Ring, with Foggia now moving into third overall a further 24 points adrift.
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