Leopard Racing’s Angel Piqueras took a stunning Misano Moto3 victory over Tech3’s Dani Holgado despite serving a double long-lap penalty.

A photo-finish separated the Spanish duo as Piqueras crossed the line 0.035s clear of Holgado in second. 

David Alonso got a good start from pole, but the Leopard of Piqueras got the jump from fourth on the grid and was able to swoop around the outside of the front row starters Luca Lunetta and Ivan Ortola, as well as poleman Alonso, to take the lead. 

An incident further back in the field saw Boe Motorsport’s David Munoz, CIP’s Ricciardo Rossi and Aragon winner Jose Antonio Rueda crash out of the race at Turn 1, with CF Moto’s Joel Esteban and MT Helmets’ Ryusei Yamanaka also running off into the gravel. 

Piqueras looked to break out front knowing he would have to take a double long lap for a crash with Scott Ogden in practice, but he was being followed by Ortola and Holgado, who were looking to close the gap to CF Moto’s Alonso in the championship. 

Holgado made the first move to overtake Piqueras for the lead as the trio looked to extend their margin over the duelling Lunetta and Alonso behind.

There was impending heartbreak for Lunetta, as the stewards ruled that he had made a jump start, along with Leopard’s Adrian Fernandez, and both received double long-lap penalties, putting an end to their chances of victory.

Piqueras dropped out of leading contention as both Leopard riders opted to take their long laps on Lap 3 – the Spaniard rejoined in 15th after completing his penalty, still running as the fastest rider on track. 

Lunetta opted to take his long lap on Lap 4, which left Ortola and Holgado as the leading duo with a 1.6 second advantage over the chasing pack led by Honda Team Asia’s Taiyo Furusato.

Furusato was leading the fight for third over Australian Joel Kelso and Alonso, with Alonso taking the pair in an effort to close the gap to the leading duo.  

It wasn’t long until the lead group became a group of five as Furusato overtook Alonso and Holgado in quick succession to move up to second. 

Holgado retook Furusato to restore his second place a lap later, though Furusato would repay the favour as the two continued to tussle for second behind Ortola. 

Alonso looked to stake his claim for victory on Lap 16, as he overtook Furusato and Holgado to get up to second and chase after Ortola. 

Alonso then took Ortola at the start of Lap 17 and looked to break away from Furusato and Holgado as the duo continued their battle. 

The battles out front brought Piqueras back into contention, as he overtook Collin Veijer, Kelso and Ortola to put himself in contention for the lead.

Piqueras forced Furusato into a mistake as he advanced onto the podium and was chasing down Holgado and Alonso on the final lap.  

The Leopard rider was clearly the fastest out of the leading pack, and his pace advantage saw him overtake Alonso for the lead.  

The battles raged on in the top three, but contact between Alonso and Holgado saw the Colombian relegated to sixth, and he would be demoted a further place to seventh following a post-race penalty. 

Holgado refused to give up the chase and had a better exit out of the final corner but it was Piqueras who took the flag for his first win in the Moto3 class, as Ortola rounded out the podium. 

Furusato came over the line in fourth while Husqvarna’s Veijer was fifth, ahead of the duelling Kelso in sixth and championship leader Alonso in seventh.

Veijer’s Husqvarna team-mate Tatsuki Suzuki took eighth with Lunetta and SIC58 Squadra Corse’s Filippo Farioli completing the top-10.

Snipers’ David Almansa missed out on the top-10 by less than a tenth of a second, with Tech3’s Jacob Roulstone just a few tenths behind him in 12th.

Fernandez’s long-lap penalty resigned him to 13th place with Stefano Nepa and MLAV Racings Ogden rounding out the points-paying positions.

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Dennis Foggia dominated proceedings in the Moto3 Indonesian Grand Prix at the Mandalika International Circuit, the Italian heading Izan Guevara by 2.6 seconds after leading all but three laps.

The Italian managed to jump up from sixth on the grid to third off the start before scrapping with the likes of GasGas duo Guevara and Sergio Garcia as well as Qatar victor Andrea Migno in the opening laps.

He managed to build up a head of steam a few laps into the encounter as he moved past Migno for second before later swallowing up Guevara’s slender lead, the Leopard Racing man snatching soon away the leadership.

From there on Foggia pushed hard to try and break the slipstream out front, though Migno was keen to remain on the rear wheel of the leader having passed Guevara.

A crucial error from the Snipers pilot at the final bend just under half-a-dozen laps into the contest proved pivotal for the race though as he nearly lost the front of his machine, dropping to fourth and leaving Foggia with a 1.5 second advantage.

Now well clear of slipstream threat, Foggia then put the hammer down and started to disappear out in front at a rate of around six tenths-of-a-second per lap, allowing him to craft a 5.5 second lead in short order before backing off and managing his lead across the rest of the race.

He would ultimately cruise home to his first win of the campaign by 2.6 over Guevara, who managed to escape from the cut-throat battle for third with just a few tours remaining to secure second having run within the top three pretty much the entire way.

Carlos Tatay put in an impressive performance meanwhile to complete the rostrum positions for the first time in his career after suffering a tough race from his first pole, the Spaniard picking up a long-lap punishment for track limits -dropping all the way to 14th at the time – as well as making several out-braking mistakes throughout.

He managed to regroup in the closing laps to become a part of the battle for third when it mattered though, enjoying a close battle with Garcia on the final circulation as they swapped positions on several occasions to beat out the GasGas man to secure the place, with Garcia left to settle for fourth ahead of Deniz Oncu.

Xavier Artigas managed to grab sixth on the second Prustel GP machine in what was an ultra-successful day for the German squad, with Jaume Masia dropping from third in the closing laps to seventh.

Ella Bartolini was eighth ahead of Daniel Holgado, while the top ten was completed by Tatsuki Suzuki on the sister Leopard Racing Honda.

Scott Ogden meanwhile managed to score his and the new Visiontrack Honda outfit’s first points in 13^th just ahead of home hero Mario Aji, who struggled to maintain his speed in race conditions after starting on the front row.

Disaster struck for Migno and Ayumu Sasaki on the final tour as they collided and crashed out while running well in the top ten, the same fate going the way of Stefano Nepa and Joel Kelso as they went down together into the gravel at the final corner on the final circulation while dicing over 11^th.

Rapid Brazillian rookie Diogo Moreira never even got the opportunity to battle for a maiden rostrum from the front row after suffering technical issues with his KTM before the start, forcing him first of all to start from the rear before later running into difficulties once again later on, leaving him heading to Argentina in two weeks time empty handed.

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Dennis Foggia powered to his third win in four races as he continues to charge towards Pedro Acosta in the championship standings, the Italian now just 21 points adrift.

Despite making a cautious start from 14^th as he dropped a place on the opening circulation, Foggia soon began to make up ground as a leading group of nine-including Acosta-began stretch away from the rest, the Leopard Honda racer making his way to tenth as he set about closing onto the leaders.

Together with Snipers man Andrea Migno he swiftly closed down the near two-second deficit he faced in only a few tours, Foggia then beginning to methodically work his way through the pack as he looked to try and keep his championship hopes alive.

Foggia had managed to manoeuvre his way through into the lead by two-thirds distance, the electrifying speed that took him to victory in the first Misano encounter five weeks ago quickly coming to the fore as he dragged a lead group away from the rest of the pack, with Acosta unable to keep pace.

The victory tussle became a simple two-horse race after Izan Guevara crashed out from fourth and Darryn Binder dropped back in the closing tours, leaving the other KTM Ajo machine of Jaume Masia as the only man who could deny Foggia success.

Masia looked to be waiting to strike across the final few laps, though as the final tour began Foggia started to really push and posted a stunning first split time-enough to give him a comfortable lead prior to the long back stretch.

Foggia rode millimetre perfect as he remained out of reach of the chasing Spaniard, leaving him to take the chequered flag 0.292s clear of Masia.

The battle for the final spot on the rostrum was also one to watch across the closing stages as a fading Binder fell towards the chasing trio of Acosta, Stefano Nepa and Niccolo Antonelli.

Determined to try and hold as a big of a points advantage heading to Portimao as possible, Acosta managed to get the better of both Nepa and Binder on the final lap to grab third and limit his points loss to just nine, leaving him 21 clear of Foggia with just two races remaining.

Having at one point on the last lap dropped to fifth, Binder at least managed to get back ahead of Nepa to take fourth, while pole-man Antonelli had to make do with sixth after leading the first half of the contest.

Romano Fenati charged through late on to grab seventh ahead of Ayumu Sasaki, while Xavi Artigas and Filip Salac completed the top ten.

Migno’s charge into the top ten came to an end after crashing out late at Turn 16, while John McPhee’s tough weekend ended early as he crashed out just prior to mid-distance.  

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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 14^th 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 20^th 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 20^th in the end.

Niccolo Antonelli salvaged 14^th 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 13^th.

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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Jaume Masia flew to a first Moto3 victory of 2020 in the Aragon Grand Prix after passing Raul Fernandez with just a corner remaining.

The Leopard Racing man was forced to do the business the hard way after getting stuck in the second group of the riders in the opening stages of the contest, while the top five led by Fernandez escaped to a 2.5 second lead.

The Spaniard dug deep though, and aided by the leading group beginning to fight was able to close in and join the victory tussle by mid-distance-bringing John McPhee and Jeremy Alcoba with him to the party.

Pole-man Fernandez looked to be the fastest of the eight as he consistently found his way back to the lead over the closing laps, though Masia tried to put a failed move on him at Turn 7 on the final lap.

He had a second bite of the cherry as the leaders fired down the 1.2km back straight for the final time, the Leopard Honda cruising past Fernandez’s KTM well before the braking zone for the final bend.

With Fernandez also coming under attack from Darryn Binder, Masia was able to take it easy through the final long left-hand sweeper and claim victory by just 0.091 over Binder, the CIP Green Power racer relegating Fernandez for third.

Romano Fenati was fourth for MAX Racing, while McPhee recovered well from an early long-lap penalty to finish fifth.

The Petronas SRT pilot picked up the penalty for touring on the racing line during qualifying, the Scotsman electing to take the alternate lap on the third tour.

Despite dropping back to 18^th, McPhee was able to drive back through the pack and onto the leading group, though a mistake on the penultimate tour effectively ended any hopes of claiming a second win of the year.

Alcoba took sixth ahead of championship leader Albert Arenas, whose points advantage now increases to 13 following another tough race for Ai Ogura.

Tatsuki Suzuki remained a part of the lead pack across the entirety of the 19 lap encounter, but faded towards the end to eighth.

Celestino Vietti’s gamble on a hard rear tyre didn’t pay off as he led the next group of riders home in ninth, with Dennis Foggia completing the top ten.

Ogura’s mystifying lack of speed in the past few events continued in Aragon, the Honda Team Asia rider only able to take the chequered flag 14^th after passing Deniz Oncu late on-meaning Vietti closes to within five points of the Japanese ace.

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Dennis Foggia claimed his first ever Moto3 victory at Brno as he held off Albert Arenas and Ai Ogura across the final tour.

The Leopard Racing man featured in the leading group throughout the 18 lap encounter, but hit the front in the final few tours as the race closed ever quicker on its climax.

Foggia led the way onto the final lap ahead of an aggressive-looking Ogura, who attempted to dive past for the lead at Turn 4-although the Leopard Honda managed to fend off the Japanese ace’s advances.

The Italian looked vulnerable though as he entered the final sector of the lap, the uphill Horsepower Hill giving his pursuers a golden opportunity to slipstream past to snatch victory away.  

Foggia was thrown a lifeline by championship leader Albert Arenas though, who slipped through up the inside of Ogura for second at Turn 11, giving Foggia a small gap heading towards the final esses section at the peak of the hill.

This small advantage was ultimately enough for Foggia as he took the chequered flag 0.205 clear of Arenas, who just managed to hold off Ogura as the Honda Team Asia rider tried to retake the runners-up position by going around the outside of the final turn.

Niccolo Antonelli bagged fourth just behind the leading trio, with John McPhee completing the top five after the Scotsman fell back slightly on the final tour.

Pole-man Raul Fernandez brought his Ajo-run KTM home in sixth position ahead of Gresini’s Jeremy Alcoba and Tony Arbolino.

Romano Fenati took ninth as the last of the leading bunch of riders, with tenth placed Stefano Nepa over seven seconds back from the rest of the group.

Several high-profile riders got mired in the slower second group that formed at around the mid-point of the contest, including ’19 Brno lightweight class winner Kaito Toba, recent form man Darryn Binder and both VR46 pilots of Celestino Vietti and Andrea Migno-the foursome crossing the line together from 11^th to 14^th respectively.

Gabriel Rodrigo was another to struggle, the Argentinean falling through the field from his front row starting spot to 19^th by the end having made several mistakes during the race.

Tatsuki Suzuki continued to display the strong shown over the opening few events across the early stages of the race, but crashed out from fifth after tucking the front of his SIC58 Honda and Turn 10 just past mid-distance.

He was then followed out of the race by the second Leopard machine of Jaume Masia, the Spaniard sliding out from second in similar circumstances to Suzuki at Turn 11 just a few tours from the end.  

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