The Spanish Ivan Ortola (KTM) got the first career win sports after beating the Grand Prix of the Americas of Moto3, after climbing eighteen positions after suffering a mishap in the first corners of the first lap of the circuit.
Iván Ortolá was accompanied on the podium Jaume Masia (Honda), who was only kept away from victory by having to dodge the previous leader, the Japanese Ayumu Sasaki (Husqvarna) when it went to the ground, and with Xavier Artigas (CFMoto) in third position.
The Spanish Daniel Holgado (KTM), who was fifth, maintains the lead in the provisional classification of the World Cup, tied at 49 points with the Brazilian Diogo Moreira.
The start of the race was not very favorable for the Moto3 riders, who encountered a strong gusty crosswind that could greatly affect the development of the test and even before starting it, on the warm-up lap the british Joshua Whatley crashed (Honda), who was able to start his motorcycle and get to his workshop to try to repair the motorcycle.
(Check the general classification of the Moto3 World Championship)
Complicated start for Masiá
As soon as the traffic light goes off at Jaume Masiá (Honda) problems began to growas up to three riders overtook him on the climb to the first corner, the Brazilian Diogo Moreira (KTM), the Japanese Ayumu Sasaki (Husqvarna) and the Italian Stefano Nepa (KTM), while the Spanish Iván Ortolá (KTM ) had a scare between the first and the second corner from which he was able to recover but only to lose many positions as he went from third place to eighteenth position.
By the end of the first lap, Sasaki had overtaken Moreira, as well as a Jaume Masiá who wanted to take it easy so as not to make mistakes, but who stuck to the slipstream of the Japanese motorcycle to try to get him to escape alone.
Meanwhile, the Italian Romano Fenati (Honda) was penalized with two “long laps” for running the red light, although before completing the same he was running in very backward positions.
Sasaki’s pace quickly formed a first group of eight riders in which were Sasaki, Masiá, Moreira, Daniel Holgado (KTM), the world championship leader, Xavier Artigas (CFMoto), Stefano Nepa, and the Japanese Ryusei Yamanaka (KTM) and Tatsuki Suzuki (Honda), who shortly after They were joined by fellow Spaniards David Salvador (KTM) and Iván Ortolá, who recovered the ground lost in the first lap.
Sasaki, one of the great candidates, a priori, to fight for the world title, he tried with all his might to break the group with a strong rhythm, although slower than in other years, to make a first important sieve.
The first victim, who also caused a break in the group, was the Japanese Suzuki, which literally blew itself up at the exit of turn five and his Honda broke into several pieces, so all the riders who saw from behind had to “cut” the rhythm somewhat and that circumstance led to the gap. While the Japanese had to go through the clinic
5 pilots, in the fight for the victory
Thus, there were five riders ahead, Sasaki, Masiá, Moreira, Holgado and Artigas, with Ortolá pulling to link up with them and Yamanaka a little further behind at the head of a chasing group with up to eight riders that also included David Muñoz, Stefano Nepa, David Salvador, José Antonio Rueda (KTM), David Alonso (GasGas), the Turkish Deniz Öncü (KTM) and the Japanese Kaito Toba (KTM).
Ortolá, at a fast lap pace on the seventh lap, linked up with the leading quintet, in which the first to pass was his compatriot Xavier Artigas, while the chasing group he was gradually falling off the hook.
Two laps later, in the ninth lap of the fourteen that the Moto3 race was scheduled for, Iván Ortolá was already fourth after passing the world championship leader Holgado, and in the next one he gave a good account of the Brazilian Moreira, but that sextet was the that integrated the aspirants to victory in the Circuit of the Americas (COTA, for its acronym in English) and anything could happen in the final laps.
Sasaki kept up the pace of the race the whole time with Masiá and Ortolá close behind him and Moreira, Artigas and Holgado a little further behind.
Sasaki’s fall
On the eleventh lap, Jaume Masiá overtook Ayumu Sasaki for the first time, but the latter quickly overtook him and there was a small scuffle between them in which the Spaniard was the first to cross the finish line to start the twelfth lap, in which Sasaki returned the overtaking to the Spaniard, but shortly after the Japanese crashed at turn thirteen and Jaume Masiá, to avoid it he had to leave the track and come back behind the leading group.
Ortolá thus found himself in the lead of the race ahead of Artiga, Moreira and Holgado, with Masiá eight tenths of a second behind, but before finishing that turn he had already overtaken Holgado and stuck to Moreira’s slipstream, which he overtook in the entrance curve to the finish line to start the last lap of the race.
That last turn was a real heart attack, but Iván Ortolá knew how to defend the position well, not so Xavier Artigas, who had to give in to the push of Jaume Masiá who could not fight for victory due to that slight incident with Ayumu Sasaki, as well as the Brazilian Diogo Moreira, who finished fourth , with Daniel Holgado in fifth position.
David Salvador was in seventh place, ahead of the Colombian of Spanish origin David Alonso behind, and José Antonio Rueda, tenth. David Almansa (CFMoto) was seventeenth, and Ana Carrasco (KTM), twenty-first, while David Muñoz did not finish after being involved in an accident with Stefano Nepa on the last lap.