David Alonso produced a stunning performance as he cruised from start to finish to secure a grand slam result in the Moto3 support race at the Circuit of the Americas.
Alonso surged out into the lead and remained uncontested as an intense battle occurred behind him, with Daniel Holgado and Angel Piqueras completing the podium.
The start saw Sic58 Squadra Corse’s Filippo Farioli and MLav Racing’s Joshua Whatley collide in the opening Turn 1, which put the Italian out in the nascent stages.
As Alonso stretched the gap between himself and those behind him, Stefano Nepa and Ivan Ortola collided at Turn 15 on the opening lap.
Nepa tried to get back onto Ortola’s bike, causing him to lose more time in getting back onto the track, with the latter’s retirement confirmed with a later crash at Turn 11.
Collin Veijer and Joel Kelso were forced out wide from the chaos and dropped a few places, but weren’t in any danger of losing time to the cluster behind Alonso out front.
Having retired last time out in Portimao, rookie Angel Piqueras steered clear of trouble on the opening lap and charged through from 17th up to third in the opening stages.
MLav Racing’s COTA race went from bad to worse as Scott Ogden crashed from the lower end of the points-scoring positions, resulting in a double no-score for the team.
Veijer bounced back brilliantly to claw back into second, overtaking Yamanaka with eight laps to go.
MT Helmets’ Yamanaka’s pace increased as he set the fastest lap as he looked to regain second place, but Veijer’s late-breaking allowed him to have the slight edge.
With five laps to go Kelso lost the front of the bike but quickly managed to mount hold of his Boe Motorsports KTM, as he rejoined in eighth behind his team-mate David Munoz.
The following lap Veijer had a diaster high-side in Turn 6, which saw his bike and himself enter a dangerous part of the esses.
Yamanaka and Holgado had to take evasive action to avoid a dangerous collision as they went off the circuit, which saw Alonso’s lead extend from 2.5s to over 4.5s.
This led to a three-way battle between Leopard Racing’s Piqueras, MT Helmet’s Yamanaka and GasGas’ Holgado followed for the final three laps.
The last lap saw Piqueras complete a crucial overtake down the back straight, but Holgado came back to take a defensive line heading into the last corner to claim the second spot in a photo finish with the fellow Spaniard.
Alonso’s dominant win from start to finish – his second in the 2024 campaign – now puts him two points behind Holgado in the race for the championship lead.
But Holgado maintained his advantage as the Spaniard sealed his third podium in a row, while Piqueras pipped Yamanaka to the final place on the podium rostrum.
The late crash from Husqvarna’s Vetijer put the Boe Motorsports duo of Munoz and Kelso up to fifth and seventh respectively, with Tatsuki Suzuki sandwiched in between.
Joel Esteban endured a quiet race to continue his strong consistency in what is his debut season, finishing off in ninth place with the CFMoto Aspar Team.
Italian rider Matteo Bertelle qualified as the lead Honda and claimed his strongest finish this season rounding off the top 10.
Leopard Racing’s Adrian Fernandez and LevelUp rookie Nicola Carraro finished in 11th and 12th respectively, with the former struggling to get to grips with the former championship-winning team.
Xabi Zurutua of the esteemed Ajo Motorsport picked up points after Jose Antonio Rueda’s late withdrawal, with Noah Dettwiler picking up his first-ever Moto Grand Prix championship points with a 14th-place finish.
Despite the start that saw his race get off to the worst possible start, the final point was awarded to Farioli as the Italian finished 32.147s off the leader.
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