David Alonso snatched away victory on the final lap of a breathless Catalan Moto3 encounter to secure his second win of 2023, while points leader Daniel Holgado crashed out.
Alonso proved to be one of the main protagonists towards the front of the leading pack throughout the 18-lap encounter, the GasGas rider warring with the likes of Holgado, Deniz Oncu, Jaume Masia and Ayumu Sasaki.
He managed to play himself into the perfect position at the start of the final lap behind leader Holgado to make a move, though Leopard Racing’s Masia had other ideas and moved clear of him to have a crack at the series leader – Masia moving into the leadership at Turn 6 with Alonso swiftly following through.
Alonso got himself within range for another attack at Turn 10 and managed to scythe through into the lead, though BOE Motorsports’ David Munoz had something to say and moved past both to hold the advantage heading through the final couple of corners.
Keen to add to his maiden victory scored at Silverstone, Alonso dived to the inside of Munoz at the final bend – Masia all the while doing exactly the same to Alonso.
Masia was pinched severely to the inside however and couldn’t get the move done, allowing Alonso to fly across the line to secure his second career victory by just 0.076s over Masia.
Deniz Oncu originally came across the line third having clattered into the side of Munoz on the exit of the last turn – causing the Spaniard to go down into the gravel as a result – which ultimately caused Oncu to be granted a six-second penalty for his part in the incident, dropping him to 12th in the final classification.
This was great news for KTM Ajo team-mate Jose Antonio Rueda who inherited the final rostrum position ahead of Husqvarna’s Sasaki and Angeluss MTA’s Stefano Nepa.
Holgado meanwhile suffered a disaster on the very final tour after going down at Turn 10 due to losing the rear end of his Tech 3-run KTM mid-corner, the championship leader thus taking the chequered flag a lowly 22nd and thus scoring no points.
Ricardo Rossi meanwhile claimed sixth for the Sic58 squad ahead of CIP’s Kaito Toba, with the sister Leopared entry of Tatsuki Suzuki was eighth.
Ryusei Yamanaka ended up ninth on the other GasGas machine, the Japanese rider narrowly heading pole-man Ivan Ortola who struggled to remain up front in the final couple tours.
Holgado’s non-score and Oncu’s penalty means Sasaki – who actually struggled to maintain a top ten run throughout the day – ended up making up significant ground in the championship fight, the six-time 2023 rostrum finisher halving his deficit to Holgado to sit only 13 markers adrift heading to Misano next weekend.
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