Dutch Moto3: Victory for Masia as Holgado falls on first lap

Jaume Masia waited patiently in the ten strong pack and pounced on the final run to the chicane to win the Moto3 Dutch Grand Prix, round eight of the championship.

The Leopard man had looked the man to beat, fastest in all the practice sessions. One lap pace eluded him in qualifying, leaving the #5 in eighth on the grid.

The bunching up helped bring the Spaniard into contention, with the group of around twenty only thinning to ten by the halfway mark.

With such a big group involved, final corner slipstream was key. Leading at the start of the final lap, the Spaniard gave way to Ayumu Sasaki at the Ram’s Hook, but used his tow from behind to power his Honda through the chicane and take his first victory of the season.

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Sasaki didn’t lose any more places, taking second for the third time this season as the Liqui Moly Husqvarna IntactGP rider still hunts for an elusive first win this year, this time short by just 0.081s.

The Japanaese rider won the Assen round from pole last season.

Germany’s race winner Deniz Oncu also fought his way back to a third consecutive rostrum finish, surviving all the shunting to rise back to third in the run to the line for Red Bull KTM Ajo.

Ortola powers though the pack for fourth.

Ride of the race arguably belonged to Ivan Ortola, although he just missed out on a podium place.

Things had gone from bad to worse overnight for the #48. Already down in 20th on the grid he was judged by race direction not to have heeded the ‘meatball’ flag quickly enough, despite pulling off track and into the pit for a fix when told of the smoke emitting form the back of his Angeluss bike. That resulted in a long lap penalty.

A series of fastest laps of the race saw him up to eighth when he took his trip down the long lap loop. The bunched up nature of the race allowed him to rejoin in twelfth.

More fastest laps followed, with Ortola as high as second over the closing laps an in contention to the win, finishing just 0.3s behind the winner in a close finish for a supreme comeback ride.

David Munoz started from pole, leading off an unusual front row which also featured Joel Kelso and Riccardo Rossi. Remainig the best of those riders, he was forced wide several times over the duration, once almost up into pitlane, but gave as good as he got to finish fifth for BOE Motorsports.

Jose Antonio Rueda was the best of the rookies, sitting on the back of the group before a late surge forward brought him sixth for Red Bull KTM Ajo.

Collin Veijer celebrated his home success in seventh with the fans trackside, joined by his teammate Sasaki on his way to parc ferme.

A much improved Romano Fenati was up and down, wide and on his own line on the way to eighth at the chequered flag for Rivacold Snipers.

Joel Kelso lead briefly at the start of the race before slipping back into the pack for ninth, clipped out of contention late on, on the CFMoto bike.

Long term race leader Stefano Nepa did not benefit from showing his rivals around the track for so long, a late move saw him out wide and finish tenth.

Kaito Toba had a fitness test before the race, but was able to start and lead the chasing group over the line in eleventh after fighting to the front for SIC58 Squadra Corse.

He passed Diogo Moreira, who also had places to make up after qualifying down in 22nd for MT Helmets- MSI.

The remaining points on offer went to David Alonso (Valresa GasGas Aspar) in 13th, Xavier Artigas (CFMoto PruestelGP)in 14th and Ryusei Yamanaka in 15th on the second Aspar bike.

Riccardo Rossi faded over the later laps, from third on the grid down to an 18th placed finish on the second SIC58 bike.

Holdago down and out of the points

Championship leader Daniel Holgado had a qualifying to forget, starting last after having his final run cancelled in qualifying. Ortola showed progress through the pack was possible, but it was not to be for the Tech 3 rider.

On the first lap, eager to make up places and under pressure from himself to do so, the Red Bull rider seemed wide, then slipped into the deep gravel at turn ten. Holgado heaved his bike out and rejoined - the tail of the bike was badly damaged. He finished the race - in 25th.

Crashes, injuries and replacements

Holgado was not the only faller around the Dutch TT.

Joshua Whatley ran into the back of Adrian Fernandez (replacing Tatsuki Suzuki at Leopard) early on, so Fernandez did not get to serve his double long lap penalty. VisionTrack teammate Scott Ogden also had a race to forget in 22nd.

Syarifuddin Azman was withdrawn early in the race weekend, in considerable pain from his broken rib.

Andrea Migno (19th) was back to deputise for Lorenzo Fellon at CIP Green Power.

Where does that leave the championship?

After failing to pick up points Holgado remians on 125. Masia’s win sees him cut the gap from 41 points to just sixteen as he moves onto 109. Sasaki is third overall on 99 with Izan Ortola and Deniz Oncu close behind on 94 each.